This year’s Sundown Night Festival – where runners will be picking up their race packs for the OSIM Sundown Marathon 2017 – is set to shake up anything that you ever knew about the race pack collection experience.
The Nation’s Largest Night Sports Carnival
Adrian Mok is the founder of HiVelocity Events. (Photo Credit: OSIM Sundown Marathon)
Taking place from 4.30pm – 10pm on 21 – 24 March as well as 2.00pm – 7.00am on 25 – 26 March, at the Formula One Pit Building, the Sundown Night Festival is set to become the nation’s largest night sports carnival.
Said Adrian Mok, 42, founder of HiVelocity Events, the organisers of OSIM Sundown Marathon, “Every year we seek out a new innovation for the event. This year, as it is our 10th anniversary, we want a bigger atmosphere of celebration. And a massive celebration entails more performances. We then got in touch with WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and they gave us the idea of putting Earth Hour together with the OSIM Sundown Marathon. The WWF also have a great line-up of performances, which we think would work.”
2017 Sundown Marathon runners can look forward to a Sundown Night Festival.
A hip and trendy Art Box concept
He added “So everyone who comes to the Sundown Marathon Night Festival will experience a dimension of Sundown that is more entertainment, food & beverage and at the same time, organising it during Race Week will extend the experience to the overseas runners as well.”
Previous editions of the OSIM Sundown Marathon race pack collection had traditionally taken place at indoor locations such as Suntec City Convention Centre and the Singapore Expo.
Said Adrian, “So the biggest change is that from indoors, we are moving the carnival outdoors. We will be creating something like the Art Box concept (a famous market concept in Thailand that uses containers instead of tents for merchants to sell their wares). This means that the whole look and feel of the atmosphere will be trendier, as well as more hip and lively as well. We are changing things around quite a bit and for the better, we hope.”
Runners will not need to queue for their race packs.
Runners will not queue for race packs
And Adrian pointed out that runners will not need to queue for their race packs at the Sundown Night Festival. He said, “We are also pushing out some new concepts of late. At the Safari Zoo Run, we were able to dispense race packs from a dispensing machine. With the same innovations, we will also be able to do printing of the race bibs on the spot. We want people to experience the atmosphere of the night festival without having to be stuck in the queue for a long time.”
He added, “So all people will need to do is to check in and at the back end, we will pack up their race packs and this should speed up the process. It’s part of the whole innovation spirit that we are trying to showcase.”
Caters to both running and lifestyle enthusiasts
The products on sale at the Sundown Night Festival will also cater to not purely runners, but also lifestyle enthusiasts.
Sundown Marathon Night Festival will cater to both runners and lifestyle enthusiasts.
Said Adrian, “A big change will be the mix of stalls, from previous years. I would say that due to our partnership with the WWF Earth Hour, we have more lifestyle partners this year and not purely running partners.”
Incorporating Earth Hour elements into the event
With regards to the run itself, Adrian explained that the Earth Hour association will extend to that. He said, “8.30pm is when the city will shut down for Lights Off. The flag off timing of the 5km run will be with the Earth Hour experience and have titled the 5km category as the Earth Hour Run.”
He added, “Also we have been thinking about how to reduce our carbon footprint and so at one of the aid stations at Earth Hour, we will not serve paper cups. This year we are also not be printing the race guide out and are exploring more ways on how to enhance the sustainability platform that we have.”
Running Route Tweaked
The running route has also been tweaked slightly. Said Adrian, “There will not be major changes but to freshen things up and align the race to the whole night festival layout, we realised that we could not stick to the same tried and tested format that we have used in previous years. But it has been quite challenging to get the necessary approval behind the scenes, for the changes that we want.”
The running route for Sundown Marathon has been tweaked slightly.
But for runners who are hoping for a flat Sundown Marathon route this year, they will be left disappointed. Said Adrian, “There will still be the Sheares Bridge. I personally like that part. I know some runners do not like the bridge, but I think that it is something definitive at Sundown Marathon and I hope that people can see it as a point of differentiation from other runs, because it is not easy to get an approval on running up the Sheares Bridge. As much as I like, I would want to maintain that feature of Sundown Marathon.”
Continued Adrian, “This year the Sheares Bridge will be at the 30+ km mark for the Marathon. So it will be challenging but that is the whole entirety of the experience as well.”
Participants can expect Yoga, CrossFit and more
Adrian is also hoping to give non-runners the chance to experience Sundown Marathon as well. He said, “We are trying to incorporate more activities. We have a yoga thing going on, and we are trying to work in a CrossFit segment into the funfair. We also have basketball and other sports too. I hope to extend this to people who are not necessarily runners but who want to be active and see Sundown as an event that they eventually want to take part in, or simply to enjoy the festivities.”
The core of OSIM Sundown Marathon will still remain as a running event.
He added, “Sundown will still essentially remain as a running event but we just want the other segments of the market to come to our event as well. It’s not an initiative to change what OSIM Sundown Marathon is and what it represents.”
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