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SINGAPORE: Parties are synonymous with the Formula One Grand Prix lifestyle, as seen in Monaco, Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai.
Singapore will be no different when the world's first night race gets underway in the city. Many nightspots are pulling out all the stops to entertain the crowds.
IndoChine, a restaurant and bar, invested nearly S$1 million to bring in big music acts like Sweden's Ace of Base and Ibiza's Jose Padilla from overseas for its fifth annual lifestyle festival.
However, it is not overly optimistic about sales, despite Singapore seeing more visitors during the season.
Michael Ma, CEO of IndoChine, said: "We decide to bring forward our festival 3 weeks earlier. We don't know. I presume there will be a lot of people. But there's a flipside to it. We've lost quite a few business because of accessibility."
The nightspot has two outlets - one at Empress Place, and the other at Clarke Quay, a stone's throw away from the F1 circuit.
IndoChine says road closures near the race track may deter its regular customers, who are mostly car owners. It is in talks with authorities to keep at least Old Parliament Lane opened for its customers to access the restaurant at Empress Place.
The club is keeping its prices competitive to draw in the crowds. A six-course F1 dinner with free flow of champagne is priced at about S$298 per person on
September 25, the opening night of its IndoChine Festival.
Mr Ma said: "We're on the back of the race track, and we'll have live screenings. So anybody who didn't make the race course, we'll be the first place that they can come to."
Inside the circuit, Zouk has partnered race organisers for three nights of dance parties at the Padang, opened only to spectators who have bought the Grand Prix tickets.
Zouk is optimistic about its business. Its marketing manager, Tracy Philips, said: "If we're going purely on the figures, we see that at Zouk Kuala Lumpur, whenever Grand Prix season hits there, and also our partners in Shanghai whom we've worked with, everyone talks about double figures (business) in a night. Obviously we're hoping for the same to happen here."
Others like Lifebrandz are more conservative. Lifebrandz, which owns several outlets, including Ministry of Sound at Clarke Quay, expects sales during the GP season to do better than the typical weekends, by about 20%, but not phenomenal like the New Year's Eve parties.
A spokesperson from the company said that together with other nightspots at Clarke Quay, it is closely monitoring the situation to see whether the GP season does bring in the expected numbers.
More than just parties, there will be other events on race ground to keep the crowds entertained. The exact details are not known yet, but Channel NewsAsia understands that there will be things like hawker stalls to showcase Singapore food.
- CNA/ir
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