Substation event gets police nod after civil society groups excluded

Zul Othman
Wednesday • September 26, 2007

THE police have turned down a request by The Substation to organise an outdoor flea market that would have included booths run by 19 civil society groups.

The flea market was supposed to be part of a six-hour event, The Tunnel Party, last Saturday to mark the 17th anniversary of The Substation, Singapore's first independent, non-profit, multi-disciplinary arts centre founded by late theatre doyen Kuo Pao Kun.

It was to have been held next to the Fort Canning Tunnel and also feature music and arts shows.

A police spokesperson said: "In the Substation's initial application for the event, the police noted it would include outdoor booths for civil society groups to promote their cause."

The groups included the Vegetarian Society, the Cat Welfare Society and two gay support groups Pelangi Pride Centre and Women Who Love Women.

"(We) informed the organisers of our position of not allowing outdoor events assessed to be contrary to public interest," the police spokesperson added.

Rather than call off the show, the organisers decided to rebrand it as the SeptFest Gig and moved it to the pavement area behind the Singapore Management University (SMU) School of Law and School of Accountancy.

The change was met with approval by the authorities.

The organisers "have done away with the outdoor booths for civil society groups. As such, the police have approved the application for SeptFest", said the police spokesperson.

The SeptFest Gig had some 23 outdoor booths, ranging from flea markets vendors to stalls peddling homemade jewellery. It attracted some 700 visitors.

The Substation's artistic co-director Lee Weng Choy told Today "it was important for us to continue with the event … because we see it as part of a large process".

The group deems such events as important because if these gatherings are successful, it said, it sets a positive precedent for engagement between the arts, civil society and the authorities.

Mr Lee said: "Some of our stakeholders, such as the bands, the commercial flea market groups and the public, might lose faith in The Substation if we cancelled an event again."

Last year, the police turned down its application to close down Armenian Street for a street party, also a collaboration with artists, arts groups and civil society groups.

Townhall Meeting of the Tunnel Party to be Postponed

We were informed today by The Substation that the Tunnel Party will be postponed because the Police wanted The Substation to apply for an assembly license even though the event had already been scheduled to move indoors (from outdooors) into The Guiness Theatre because of similar concerns by the Police.

In order to apply for an assembly license, the police would need to vet all the flyers and brochures from the groups and also mentioned that they are not in favour of the distribution of materials from "certain" groups.

Hmm... wonder what groups those are?

The Substation will arrange a meeting with all the stakeholders of the various groups to re-think the whole event.

Having said that, permission from MDA was given to hold a music event outside and the film screenings will still continue in the theatre. Following requests from MDA, the music event outdoors will now be licensed as The SeptFest Gig.

Everyone is invited to go down to The SeptFest Gig at 4.30pm, Saturday, SMU Pavement Area

Come join us at Tunnel Party (Sat, 22 September 2007) - Outdoor License not approved, stay tuned for more information

Tunnel Party Flea Market participants

Civil Societies/Non-profit groups

1 Cicada Tree Eco-Place
An NGO that promotes eco-living and the natural & cultural heritage of Singapore through environmental education.

2 ONE (Singapore)
Raising public awareness and taking concrete actions to make poverty history.

3 ACRES
NGO with the main aim of fostering compassion and respect for all animals.

4 Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2)
TWC2 is a charity that is concerned with promoting the well being of foreign workers in Singapore.

5 Pelangi Pride Centre
The folks at Pelangi Pride Centre operate a resource library devoted to HIV education and GLBTQ issues.

6 UNIFEM Singapore
A women's fund at the United Nations, it provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies to foster women's empowerment and gender equality.

7 Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME)
HOME is a NGO that aims to improve the welfare and status of migrant workers in Singapore.

8 Youth Ministry, Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery
Supports youths in personal and spiritual growth and community initiatives on areas such as inter-faith, environment and community arts.

9 Vegetarian Society (Singapore)
Educate the public to eat less or no meat; support vegetarians

10 Cat Welfare Society
Registered charity working to control the population of community cats and to reduce complaints through a cat management programme called Trap-Neuter-Return-Manage.

11 Think Centre
an independent non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Singapore. First registered as a business (RCB) on 16 Jul 1999 and today as a society (under ROS) on 20 Oct 2001, the Centre aims to critically examine issues related to political development, democracy, rule of law, human rights and civil society. Think Centre's activities include research, publishing, organising events and networking.

12 AWARE
Promoting a society that provides optimal opportunities for women, and men, to realise their highest potential.

13 Green Volunteers Network
started in November 1997 to increase public participation in environmental protection by providing a range of hands-on activities and programmes to turn awareness into action. It attracts all sectors of the community, from students to retirees. Since its inauguration, it has grown from 50 to 900 strong and it still expanding.

14 Singapore Environment Council
The Singapore Environment Council is a company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 2nd November 1995. It is a non-profit organisation with the status of an institution of public character and it is an approved charity which therefore offers tax exemption for donors.

15 Food for All
An initiative to better coordinate food distribution efforts in Singapore and to advocate on hunger issues.

16 Catholic Aids Response Effort (CARE)
Founded in 1992, a registered Society, we provide shelter/home to people with HIV/AIDS who have been ejected by family and society at large and to give them self-worth; to assist them to integrate back into Society and to educate the public on HIV/AIDS and welcome volunteers.

17 aidha
Providing financial education, entrepreneurship and confidence building training to migrant domestic workers in Singapore.

18 Women Who Love Women
A collection of resources for gay women in Singapore, run by gay women in Singapore.

19 Riverkids Project
An NGO dedicated to spread awareness about child trafficking in Cambodia

Arts Groups/Artists

20 Music For Good
A music organization that promotes Singapore music.

21 The Meeting Point
Started as group of 3 photographers who believes in spurring one another in our works, and to bounce off ideas. Along the way, more people joined in, besides photographers, a illustrator, a filmmaker wannabe, and 2 writers joined in, and collaborated on few projects. Till date, there are 9 photographers, 2 writers, one cameraman, one illustrator.

22 Migrant Voices
Registered arts group doing arts programmes with migrant workers, celebrating the artistic talents of migrant workers.

23 Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Committee
a group of artists & individuals coming together to discuss issues of capital punishment.

24 The Substation
Non-profit independent arts organization.

25 LionCityDIY
Independent do-it-yourself artists that does print zines, silkscreening and gigs.

26 The Theatre Practice
Founded in 1986 and Singapore's first bilingual theatre company

27 Sloth Studio
Slothstudio.com is an online portfolio that we use to portray our personal artworks (both traditional and digital mediums) and designs.

28 The Necessary Stage Ltd
The Necessary Stage is a non-profit theatre company with charity status founded in 1987 to create innovative intercultural theatre that touches the heart and mind.

29 Theatreworks/72-13
is the home of Theatreworks, a performance centre and platform for Asia's expression and its relationship to the rest of the world.

30 The RAISED Committee
Individual artists

Commercial Groups

31 Urs ConNEXTion Pte Ltd
Managing group of people that are Dynamic, Innovative and Passionate in Entertainment & Event Management. We provide Innovative, Creative and Unique concept in Show Productions. Managing and organizing of Youth, Sport, Art, Music, Celebration, and Corporate Events, as well as Competition, Training, Course, and Seminar. We also provide Artists and Talents management, Music and video production, courses like: vocal, hip hop dance etc. and Event Consultant.

32 Flux Us
Active since Jul 05, we are the country's first and only store solely dedicated to the promotion of experimental music to Singaporeans. We have also organised various concerts featuring local, regional and international musicians and sound artists.

33 Fusion X Music
A centre dedicated towards the promotion of music events and courses

34 House on the Pebble/Frocking
We are a small jewellery/craft making duo. Being animal lovers, we would like to use some or all of our profits to SPCA.

35 Def Rocket
Def Rocket is a concept-driven graphic tee label, created by writer Don Bosco. It is inspired by underground music, science fiction and street culture.

36 Visual Trap
Group of young designers who specialize in T-shirts

37 Flea Fly Flo Fun/SWOP
A consortium of flea market vendors
38 Joey Chin Ling Min
Two people; one a writer and a part time poet, and the other an NUS undergrad, a freelance stage actress selling poetry and other knick knacks.

Commercial Individual Vendors

39 Joan Teo

Others

40 Singapore Management University (SMU)
students groups involved in non-profit work will set-up booths
a) SMU Women's Connection (feminist)
b) SMU Verts (environment)

41 Nanyang Technological University
students from the Arts, Design and Media department

42 Harley Davidson (TBC)
picture opportunities with bikers

43 Yogis for the Environment, Animals and Humanity (YEAH!)
Yoga with certified Vivakananda Yogi on top of the tunnel

44 Asian Europe Foundation (ASEF)
Launched on 15 February 1997 in Singapore, the foundation's mission is to promote greater mutual understanding between the peoples of Asia and Europe through closer intellectual, cultural, and people-to-people exchanges.