Last evening, the two-day STAR WARS™ DAY: MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU Festival, concluded with a bang with the second edition of the STAR WARS™ RUN Singapore.

Click here to view the Star Wars Run 2018 photos.

Presented by local event organiser Esprimo and supported by the Singapore Tourism Board, the festivities drew legions of fans from Singapore and around the region. They came together to celebrate their love for the iconic franchise.

Initially incorporated in 2011, Esprimo has the aim of becoming Singapore’s most reliable and customer-oriented sporting event company.

One of the key highlights of the Festival had been the appearance of Albin Johnson, the founder of the international STAR WARS™ costuming organisation, 501st Legion, and his special pink astro mech droid R2-KT, who were roving around the festival grounds on both days. The stars were welcomed with huge fan crowds who were here to meet them for the first time.

One such fan had been Tina Gan, 50, who said, “I am super excited to meet Albin and R2-KT. When I heard that R2-KT had appeared in STAR WARS™: The Force Awakens, I went back to the cinemas at least three times to search for her scenes.”

She continued, “It was an honour to thank Albin and R2-KT for the good deeds they have done and for the joy that they brought to the fandom as well as the hope they have inspired in the STAR WARS™ community here.”

And the thematic run saw more than 10,000 local and overseas runners across three categories, including the competitive 10km run, the non-competitive 5.4km and the inaugural 540 metre Young Jedi Dash, the latter being a category specially designed for young children aged four to nine years old.

Runners taking part got to choose one of two routes – to join the Rebellion on the Light Side or to succumb to their anger and temptation on the Dark Side.

I took part in the 5.4km run on the Light Side. My dad chose to represent the Dark Side, just like Darth Vader.

We had both chosen to run the 5.4km event, because of the hype regarding this particular event’s unique flag off – the Light and the Dark Side participants running in opposite directions and we wwere treated to a sensational pyrotechnics display that had illuminated the Singapore skyline. 

Both of us are STAR WARS™ fans too, so this was naturally, a run that we were eagerly anticipating. 

In order to add some spice to the running route and have a bit of fun at the same time, I had decided to dress up as Princess Leia for this run.

We had arrived early at the race village, at roughly about 6.15pm, so that we could collect our media passes, have a look around and also take some photos before the flag off.

I must admit that my first impression was that the organisation of the event had seemed to be a little messy.

This is because when we had approached the information counter for the collection of our media passes which had been previously arranged, the counter staff did not really seem to know what was going on and we were directed from one person to another, with nobody appearing to be really aware what was going on. Eventually, after some time, everything was sorted out.

There were plenty of photo opportunities at the beginning of the event, especially with the various STAR WARS™ fan costume groups such as the 501st Legion, Singapore Garrison and Rebel Alliance, out in full force. 

I had thought this was quite interesting and impressive and I had a great time looking out for the various characters to take photos together with. But I felt that the cutest and most adorable ones though, were the costumed children – mostly dressed as young Jedi Padawan but I did catch sight of the occasional young Rey or Han Solo though.

Most of the kids had taken part in the Kids Fashion Parade, where they were able to personify their favourite STAR WARS™ characters on stage and be judged for their creativity in doing so.

As well, there were a few merchandise booths with STAR WARS™ themed items and toys for sale, as well as sponsor booths giving out free samples of food and drink such as yoghurt, fruit juice and sparkling water. 

I took some of the strawberry yoghurt to give me some energy for the run ahead and as it was a hot and humid day, this cool treat had tasted quite delicious.

On display too, had been more than 500 vintage and contemporary STAR WARS™ toys dating back all the way to 1977, and it was quite interesting to have the chance to slowly look through all of these as I had waited for the run to begin.

Some STAR WARS™ themed food items were also available for sale, to tie in with the theme of the event, and what had caught my attention had been the little cookies that were shaped like iconic STAR WARS™ characters such as Darth Vader and Yoda. 

These cookies were also flavoured accordingly too, for example, the Darth Vader cookie was a double chocolate one. I could not help myself as I thought they were rather interesting, and so I bought a couple of these to munch on.

The Royal Selangor booth was also interesting, with lots of rather interesting STAR WARS™ themed pewter ornaments on display as well as being for purchase, such as Han Solo trapped in a carbonite block, or the Death Star.

We headed into our race starting pens just after 7pm.

I had thought that the flag off was quite impressive. This was the part of the event that had been heavily hyped up. There was an emcee on each side, the Light and the Dark side, and they were engaging in a bit of friendly banter at which side of the Force is the best. They were also riling up participants too, getting them to cheer, to find out which side was able to cheer the loudest. 

And the pyrotechnic fireworks were amazing and stunning too. In fact it had possibly rivalled the National Day fireworks. Unfortunately it was quite difficult for me to snap a good shot of these with my iPhone because my reaction time had been quite bad!

Members from the Rebel Alliance and soldiers from the Empire had further excited runners when they had appeared at the start line to flag off the Light and the Dark sides respectively. 

The run also flagged off on time, at 7.30pm.

Added Shaun See, 50, a Director at an IT company, “I came to the STAR WARS™ RUN last year too and I thought this time round was much better organised. The wait to start last year had been really long so this year was far better.”

However I admit that I had found the run a bit anti-climatic though.

For the Light Side route which I had ran, the first two kilometres passed by quite uneventfully. The route took us from the F1 Pit Building towards the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay, before running towards Marina Barrage and then back the way that we had come.

But along the way, it had been quite nice to have people recognise the character that I was dressed up as and they called out to me as a result. These moments had put a smile to my face.

There had also been kilometre markings to look at, with STAR WARS™ characters such as Chewbacca and Han Solo printed on them, but that was about it. It would have been great if actual characters had been present for runners to pose with along the way but unfortunately this was not the case.

Fortunately though, I did not feel that the route itself had been congested so I could actually run the whole way and did not really need to slow down to a walk during any part of my run. 

But the reason was probably because I had started my run early enough in the first wave, before most of the runners had the opportunity to cross the starting line.

At times though, there were pedestrians or cyclists along the paths and I found that I had to constantly keep a lookout for them, to avoid accidents. Nevertheless there had been marshals who attempted to keep the human traffic off the running paths even though the route had not been closed completely to the runners.

But Danny Gow, 51, a Grab driver felt that the running route was a little congested at the beginning, though. He said, “This was not a time based run, so I took it easy. But I had to start slowly because of the sheer number of people at the beginning. It opened up around the middle though so I picked up my pace and ran from that point onwards.”

He added, “I don’t think the organiser can really do much with the crowd though. The fact they organised the race in two different directions really helped a lot, and I think that was good enough in terms of the crowd management. Marina Bay is a tourist spot after all so it was a commendable effort by the organiser.”

His thoughts were echoed by Shaun, who said, “From the point of a runner, there were certain points that were choked and the start line was a bit narrow as well. The start line was also congested and standing in the start pen had felt quite hot and humid.”

Continued Shaun, “But the organiser did their best to spread the runners out, with the two different running routes. I think it’s more to do with the physical limitation of this location rather than anything else.”

The race hydration was well managed, with one hydration point in the middle of the route, serving runners both water and coconut juice. I took the water because I find it more refreshing than the coconut beverage when I am running.

There was one interactive Fan Zone at the 3km point of the 5.4km Light Side route but that was about it. This Fan Zone consisted of some blue coloured lights that resembled a disco, and some STAR WARS™ themed music.

Said Danny, “I thought the Fan Zone was amazing. I wished I had a camera to snap photos of it. Placing it in the middle was good to motivate runners to pull through. But it was a bit short; it could have been extended all the way to the u-turn point at Marina Barrage. 

He continued, “As well, another Fan Zone at the end would also have been good to motivate runners in a spectacular way. I did this AIA Music Run a couple of races ago and there were speakers lining the whole route; it was the first time I had run a race where there was music all the way. I would have loved it if the STAR WARS™ RUN had done the same thing. The STAR WARS™ theme song or iconic tunes from the saga, such as the Imperial March would have been really motivating and could even shave off seconds from our running times.”

When I had got to the Fan Zone, I stopped to take a few photos and also a quick video of it. This was rather refreshing for me to run through and good to get me into the STAR WARS™ mood, but I felt that it would have been great if some STAR WARS™ characters had been present for us to take pictures with here, as well. I did not see any when I had been running through the zone. So in some way, it had been a bit anti-climatic for me.

Shaun had begged to differ though. He said, “I felt that the Fan Zone midway during the run was a bit irritating for me as I was trying to concentrate on my run, but it’s good for the kids to keep them motivated to carry on running without stopping.

The rest of the 5.4km Light Side run passed by without any other STAR WARS™ elements, much to my disappointment and so I found myself looking forward to seeing each kilometre marker to discover which was the character depicted on it.

As this is a STAR WARS™ themed run, I felt it would have been nice to have had actors along the actual 5.4km route dressed up as STAR WARS™ characters, in order to cheer the runners on as well as to provide some more photo opportunities for runners en route. I thought it had felt quite anti-climatic that all the actors and cosplayers had been at the race village.

It may also have been nice to have had some STAR WARS™ themed surprises along the way, for example, Ewok noises randomly coming from speakers hidden within the darkness, or lightsaber battling sounds coming up at organiser pre-determined moments along the run, in order to throw runners off guard and further immerse us into the STAR WARS™ universe.

For the Dark Side route, which my dad ran, this took runners from the F1 Pit Building towards the Gardens by the Bay East and Tanjong Rhu areas before returning back to the F1 Pit Building.

The five kilometre markings along the way were pretty much spot-on, with each one depicting a character practising the Dark Side of the Force, much like the Light Side kilometre markers. And these signages had attracted long queues of runners who were eager to wait and pose for pictures with them. 

And in terms of the fan engagements, this too, had been pretty similar to the Light Side route except that the Fan Zone was located around the 4.5km point of the run. But this had been apparently too near to the end point of the run as there had not been much STAR WARS™ elements prior to this segment.

Nevertheless, this Dark Side Fan Zone had consisted of red disco lights in order to rile up the STAR WARS™ ambience and atmosphere, and there were four soldiers from the Empire ready to pose for photos with fans. These had been the same characters as the ones that were at the Dark Side starting line.

At an earlier point along the running route though, there had also been some music playing from a hidden speaker but this was only at one small section of the route, though, and it did not really last for very long at all. So my dad had felt that this had been a tad disappointing for him.

But the Dark Side route may have consisted of more runners dressing up though to run so this could have added to the STAR WARS™ festivities and mood along the way; for instance, according to my dad, he had been following a few runners who had dressed up as white stormtroopers, complete with heavy plastic helmets, throughout his 5.4km journey and he was quite tickled by the fact that they had managed to survive the whole run whilst inside the thick costumes, and wearing face masks.

The hydration needs for the Dark Side runners were also well met though, with one station serving both water and coconut juice at roughly the 2.5km mark.

The Dark and Light Side routes had both congregated back at the F1 Pit Building, where runners collected their finisher entitlements of a tee shirt, unique finisher medal, a bottle of 100PLUS and a packet of coconut juice.

My finisher medal had displayed Chewbacca and dad’s one was a Stormtrooper.

I hung around the race village for a while longer, and caught some segments of a performance by The Dark Empire, who is Singapore’s first STAR WARS™ tribute band who arranges and performs their own rendition of classic STAR WARS™ theme songs.

They had played five famous pieces overall and these included The Imperial Suite, The Imperial March “Darth Vader’s Theme” and Star Wars Main Theme. When they came to the stage, throngs of people congregated to hear them play, and I thought their performance had been quite amazing, re-igniting feelings of STAR WARS™ nostalgia in both my dad and me.

I also spent some time chatting with Reno Tan, the founder of costuming community group Movie Mania. I first met him when I’d interviewed him several years ago.

To end off the evening, there was a special screening of STAR WARS™: The Last Jedi under the stars. Though dad and I had both caught this movie when it was first released in December last year, this was nevertheless a very fitting way to finish off the night of STAR WARS™ fun and entertainment.

Most STAR WARS™ fans have already watched all the movies and know the storylines already, but they didn’t see any harm in watching them again and thus reliving fond STAR WARS™ memories. Said Danny, “I’ve been a fan since the first movie in 1977; it was a trilogy so I have to watch till the end and I have been following the stories ever since.”

And agreed Shaun, “I’ve watched all the movies at least once and used to collect the STAR WARS™ toys when I was younger.” 

Shaun continued, “In STAR WARS™, I like Han Solo because I think he’s a fun character; he is a rogue and does not do as people say but I think he has plenty of talent too.”

Overall it had been a great night out, celebrating our shared interest in the STAR WARS™ pop culture together with like-minded fans from all walks of life.

For many of the runners taking part in the event, they also had a great evening out, despite some shortcomings here and there with the run.

Said Shaun, “The run was quite fun and I enjoyed myself; my general feeling is that 5.4km is just right for a run. It’s nice and short and is not too strenuous for anyone.”

The event organisers are also happy with putting on a successful event as a whole.

Said Ang Han Wee, Race Director of STAR WARS™ RUN and Founder of local event organiser Esprimo, “We are heartened by the great turnout at the second STAR WARS™ DAY: MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU Festival. We would like to thank the fan clubs for their ongoing support, as well as Albin Johnson and R2-KT for taking the time to join us in our celebrations this year.”

He added “As we progress into the third year collaborating with The Walt Disney Company South East Asia, we look forward to bringing more magical experiences to the young as well as the young at heart.”

Click here to view the Star Wars Run 2018 photos.