Singapore GP: F1 Rocks Day 1
The first day of the F1 concert – it was a cacophony of sound, noise, shouting, cheering and cars zooming by, to greatly downplay the scale of it all. As the Formula One cars sped by on the tracks, clamour and cheering surrounded the seating area – I wasn’t part of them, but I definitely was close enough to feel the intensity of the energy in the place!
Of course, the drivers couldn’t race the entire day (which, I am sure some of you race junkies hope for), so the event was intermediated by a few concerts, which I was lucky enough to be delegated the task of covering.
At 7pm, the sun was already half down and the street lights came on- a perfect time for the Zouk DJ’s to welcome audiences into the night. Which, of course, they did extremely well by means of bass drops and heavy beats from their electronic dance mixtapes.
Instead of getting more worn and weary as their performance ploughed on (which was an effect I had mistakenly predicted; I thought that the audience, or at least ME, would be desensitized to the amalgamation of electronic screeches from the DJ set after the first half hour. Of course, it was far from that!), the atmosphere seemed almost electric; the sheer energy and vitality around me as I was in the crowd jump-started the night like a defillibrator (with my expectations being the dead person).
As it approached the dead of night, the energy didn’t die down. In fact, the day one concert culminated in a performance by Pharrell Williams, who made his (yet another) grand appearance on the dark stage with powerful lights suddenly illuminating his dancing figure. What impressed me most was how the crowd responded; cheering, screaming and all manner of human-induced noise could be heard.
I even saw a group of foreigners dancing freely to one of his songs. It truly was an amazing experience, even if not for Pharrell Williams (who I was not a fan of); the crowd itself was reason enough for me to stay throughout the concert to the end.Photo: Raphael Ong