Event organisers and developers of Marina Bay have visions for the area as a huge public area, starting with the New Year's Eve celebrations
IT'S not called the Bay of Celebration for nothing. Come New Year's Eve, more than 150,000 people will converge on Marina Bay, and especially on the Esplanade.
They will watch as the waterfront, already bathed in lights and the glow of thousands of floating spheres, is greeted with a burst of fireworks and music at the stroke of midnight.The spheres, all 5,000 of them, carry the wishes of people across Singapore. Members of the public have penned their hopes and visions on the white balls, which have been progressively deployed on the waters since mid-December.
One of the biggest hopes, of course, lies with the event organisers and developers of Marina Bay, who have visions for the area as a huge public area.
'It is our hope that Marina Bay will be the 'Bay of Celebration' with a series of nationwide activities and celebrations,' said Fun Siew Leng, director of urban planning and design at the Urban Redevelopment Authority.
'It is fitting that Singapore's New Year's Eve tradition is held at Marina Bay, as the area reflects our ties with tradition and our wishes for the future.'
She said the URA works in 'close collaboration with the stakeholders' of Marina Bay at such public festivities, which includes the National Day Parade in August. The URA has worked with the Esplanade arts centre on the New Year countdowns since 2005, she said.
Marina Bay is set to be the heart of Singapore's new downtown. Over the next few years, the area, already home to the central business district and many museums and civic buildings, will see the completion of another massive financial centre, several luxury residential towers, and an integrated resort that will house hotels and a casino.
The developers appear keen to promote Marina Bay not only as a centre of finance and high living, but also as a fun space for everyone.
The area will be fitted out with parks and waterfront walkways for the use of pedestrians, joggers and the general public.
Events such as the Countdown also aim to involve various community groups such as Youth Challenge, the Singapore Indian Development Association and Yayasan Mendaki.
Aspirations
'When people from all walks of life come together to wish not only for themselves, but also collectively as a community, the occasion becomes a celebration of the aspirations of our people,' said the Esplanade's chief executive officer, Benson Puah.
Perhaps the most ambitious project concerns the waters of Marina Bay. Already, the Singapore River and Kallang Basin are the playgrounds of dragon boat rowers and wakeboarders, but greater plans are afoot.
The four water bodies of Greater Marina Bay - the Singapore River, the Kallang River, Marina Channel and Marina Bay - will provide an enlarged platform for national and international events, said Ms Fun.
'Our vision is to make the Greater Marina Bay the premier waterfront lifestyle destination for residents and visitors,' she said.
For instance, Marina Bay will be the venue for international high-speed sports events, with a 2.5 km power-sporting circuit for races.
At the Kallang Basin, a 35-hectare zone of water will be dedicated to canoeing and dragon boat races. Another five hectares at the Kallang River will be for other activities like wakeboarding.
Marina Channel will have a one-kilometre race course for rowing competitions, while the Singapore River will feature activities that showcase its history and heritage.
A waterfront loop of nearly 12 km is being built around Marina Bay, Marina Channel and the Kallang Basin, said Ms Fun.
The URA worked closely with the boards of Public Utilities, National Parks and Tourism, as well as with the Sports Council and the Singapore Land Authority to draw up this 'water-activities master plan', she added.
If skidding on the water is not your kind of thing, then you can survey the scene more serenely from the air.
The Singapore Flyer, the world's largest observation wheel, will be opened in March, but already corporate groups are snapping up tickets for the inaugural 'flights' in mid-February, said a spokesperson for sales and marketing agent Adval. 'We have set aside 20 per cent capacity to cater to walk-ins when the Flyer opens to the public on March 1, so as not to disappoint our visitors who turn up hoping to get up,' she said.
Flying high
The Flyer will give a 360 degree view of the bay and the city skyline, as its capsules rotate up to 165 metres in the air. 'No other location in Singapore will be able to provide such a comprehensive view of the island-city and beyond, to the surrounding isles of Malaysia and Indonesia,' said the spokesperson.
The Flyer is being marketed with some rather savvy ideas. The giant wheel provides a 'unique moving venue in the sky' for people to host birthdays, company functions and even weddings. Betrothed couples can buy a 'Solemnisation Package', reserving a floral-decorated capsule for two rotations (one hour) as they make their vows in front of up to 26 guests.
As for Feb 14, around 60 couples have already booked the Valentine's Day Package.
The Flyer is close to the starting and finishing points of Singapore's first Formula One Grand Prix, which will take place at night and on the streets of Marina Bay, in September 2008.
With all this going on, it would be hard indeed to ignore Marina Bay. The hope is to catapult Singapore to the big league where public events and celebrations are concerned.
Speaking of the countdown, URA's Ms Fun said: 'It is our wish to see it grow into an annual iconic event, placing Singapore alongside London, New York, Tokyo and all major cities, as the world bids farewell to one year and embraces the next.'
It remains to be seen whether the Marina Bay festivities will one day be mentioned in the same breath as that in New York's Times Square.
Until then, it wouldn't hurt to write your wishes on a ball and throw it on the sparkling river.
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