A fun-filled Underground Carnival, a massive Avatar: The Way of Water-inspired Marui Pod, and a magical atmosphere at Jewel’s Canopy Park – these are just some of the installations and activities that visitors to Changi can enjoy this year-end season.
Putting these together was not an easy feat – Changi Journeys speaks to the team behind Changi Festive Village, the airport’s year-end holiday celebration, to find out what transpired behind the scenes.
The Experience Creation team at the Marui Pod (Terminal 3)
Delfine Ong, Associate General Manager, Experience Creation, shared, “Celebrating the year-end festivities has been a mainstay at Changi. It’s been two years since we’ve had a centrepiece at Terminal 3 (due to Covid), and we are excited to bring it back this year. The first Avatar movie was launched in 2009, and with its sequel premiering in December 2022, we wanted to launch a ‘comeback’ together with one of the most celebrated films of all time, capturing the excitement of a new movie release together with the celebratory mood of the festive season.
“This is the largest festive structure ever built in Terminal 3, at 15 metres wide and seven metres tall. Located just in front of departure immigration, passengers will be awed by it and feel that their holiday has already started even before they fly off. Changi Airport is the only place in Asia that hosts this life size replica of the Navi house, providing a once in a lifetime opportunity for visitors.
“Every year-end, we challenge ourselves and ask – what’s next? What else can we do? With each passing year the installations get bigger, more elaborate, with added complexity. At this rate, Changi can be transformed into anything – who knows, one day we could be taking a roller coaster to board our planes!”
The Landside Concessions Division at the launch of the T3 Underground Carnival
Planning for the T3 Underground Carnival was a six-month long process. It required working with multiple vendors and stakeholders, including getting the necessary permits from various parties for the extensive set-up.
Xie Jianxiang, Senior Manager, Landside Concessions division, said, “Changi Airport has always been a favourite family haunt, especially during the weekends. With the success of the carnival at Terminal 4 over the past two years, we wanted to continue to bring a variety of rides and games to our shoppers and passengers at Terminal 3.
Blast to the past with old school carnival games and check out a mama shop selling old school snacks!
“We curated the theme of time travel to showcase the different eras of carnivals – Past, Present and Future all in one place. Parents and grandparents can experience the nostalgia of yesteryear and give their children or grandchildren a glimpse of what the carnivals during the Great World era was like, as well as draw them to be creative and re-imagine how carnivals of the future will be.
The Jellyfish station is the first of its kind and is a great Instagrammable spot
“We hope that visitors will enjoy the various themes and rides, and tourists will get to experience a slice of Singapore while they travel through Changi. Over the first two weekends, the crowd from The Underground Carnival brought in vibrancy to T3’s basements, as well as additional footfall to the F&B and retail tenants situated there.”
The 16-metre tall Prudential Singapore Jewel Christmas Tree sets the stage for a joyous mood at Jewel.
Over at Jewel, a brand-new Avatar-inspired Light and Sound show was unveiled. Keri Low, Senior Manager, User Experience, Jewel Changi Airport Devt., said, “The music used for the HSBC Light and Sound show came from the soundtrack of the first Avatar movie and is titled ‘Jake’s First Flight’. It is an inspiring and calming track and brings familiarity to those who watched the first movie.
“Working with renowned water feature designer WET, assets from Avatar: The Way of Water were weaved in visually through the projection of Ilu, Tulkun and coral assets in a plethora of bioluminescence colours. This combination worked well to connect the audience across the two movies.
“The choreography of the L&S show was challenging due to the time difference as WET is based in the United States, and the creative team was not able to be present physically initially to see how the actual show turned out.
“Thankfully as travel restrictions relaxed, WET’s choreographer was able to travel to Singapore for a week of rigorous testing and finetuning. The test shows were done after operating hours and changes to the show had to be turned around within the day for testing the next night.”
Explore marine-themed activities at Canopy Park
At Canopy Park (located at the topmost level of Jewel), there is an extension of the underwater theme where the place transformed after dark through the illumination of various elements, while interactive elements such as the fog tunnel, snowfall, interactive screens and smoke bubbles were incorporated.
Keri added, “We hope that guests will be able to bask in the magical ambience that Jewel has to offer and immerse themselves in marine-themed activities for a splashing good time at Jewel!”
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