Gardens by the Bay Turns Five With Gardens Extravaganza Special

Gardens Extravaganza Special Finale

It didn’t seem that long that the Gardens by the Bay first opened, but time flies and it’s been five years! To celebrate their fifth anniversary, Gardens by the Bay organised a series of events, and one of them is the Gardens Extravaganza Special. The multimedia show combining 3D projection mapping, fire/pyrotechnics, acrobats and trapezes took place at the Supertree Grove at the Gardens by the Bay over the weekend of 3-4 June 2017.

After reading about this as well as seeing photos from the media preview, I made a trip down to watch and shoot the event. Expectedly, it was very crowded by the time I got there, but I managed to find an acceptable spot to shoot from, which gave me a reasonably good view of the Supertrees.

The show was done in partnership with local company, Hexogon Solution, which I remember also did one of the i Light video projections on the ArtScience Museum. They have also done video mapping for National Day Parades and SEA Games. Thirty-two high-lumen projectors were used for this.

Garden of Light, an installation by Hexagon Solution for i Light 2012.

Here are some photos of the show. In order to capture the many things that were going on, I used both my Fujifilm X-T1 and X-T2, with the latter mounted on a tripod to capture the wide shots. The lens used is a Zeiss Touit 12mm f/2.8.

Performers were shot on the X-T1 hand held, using the XC 50-230mm f/4.5-6.7.

Gardens Extravaganza Special
A pair of trapezes hang from a cube suspended from the Supertree.
A pair of trapezes hang from a cube suspended from the Supertree.
Fire twirler
Bursts of fire emanate from the OCBC Skyway and around the Supertree Grove.
An aerial performer suspended from the Supertree.
A aerial performer on a suspended ring beside one of the Supertrees.
An aerial performer suspended on a ring from one of the Supertrees. In the background is the Singapore Flyer.
Visitors take photos of the finale of the Gardens Extravaganza Special. The slightly long has caused the moving bubbles to form coloured streaks of light.

I have also managed to borrow a GoPro Hero 5 Black to record the whole performance in 4K. You can watch it below. Be sure to watch in full screen 4K!

By the time you read this, the special edition of the show is over. However, you can still catch a shorter (~9 min) version of it from now till the end of June 2017. Show times are at 7:45pm and 8:45pm.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *