TOYSREVIL @ Illustration Arts Festival 2024
The 2024 Edition of Illustration Arts Festival opened Friday July 5th (to invited guests & industry), and opens to the public on Saturday July 6th, exhibiting thru Sunday July 7th (from 11am to 7pm). Ticketed Entry is $6 at the door and online here. This is the first time entry fee is implemented, and quite frankly is a miniscule price to pay for this annual event, IMHO.
I was hovering around on Friday for a good 4 hours, and these are all I could muster, cheers :p
I went to the July 5th opening of Illustration Arts Festival 2024 & these were what I saw (1st featured on #Instagram): https://t.co/qFt5ZJg3kn#IAF2024sg#IllustrationArtsFest#toysblog pic.twitter.com/mJVOB3QRFI
— toysrevil (@toysrevil) July 6, 2024
THE VENUE:
The event is located at "ArtSpace @ Helutrans", with the space essentially right beside the new location for Singapore Art Museum (SAM), under the same roof of the warehouse-esque building. Which makes the most sense to utilise the free Shuttle Bus Service between Harbourfront MRT Station Exit D and SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark!
(Fast time-lapse on Instagram)
PSA: Beware the MALE public restroom is at the far end of the building (so don't try to hold anything in for long), while the FEMALE restroom is just around the front door corner, where the drinks vending machine are ($2 for yummy freshly squeezed orange juice FTW).
HOW TO GET THERE:
This was a key hurdle for me. This is the first time the venue is hosting the event, and I was wholly unfamiliar with the location. GRAB-ing from home would've cost me a righteous purchase, so suck thumb and take public transport... which meant I GRABbed a partial of the journey LOL
Directional instructions were provided for on illustrationartsfest.carrd.co, but essentially for me/us, I decided to drop off at Tanjong Pagar MRT, then head top side and grabbed a Grab for slightly over $10 (Address: 39 Keppel Road, #01-05. Tanjong Pagar Distripark Singapore 089065).
"Exit E" (stated in the direction instructions), is currently CLOSED, but the station dude told me to head to "Exit D" instead, close by ...
As mentioned above, with SAM right next to the designated IAF venue, it makes the most sense to use the Free Shuttle Bus Service between Harbourfront MRT Station Exit D and SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, available on weekends and public holidays. Check out schedules are (starts from 10am, departs every 30 minutes).
Heading home, we took a public bus (outside the venue along main road) to Harbour Front/Vivo City, and took a MRT home, easy-peasy. Would've been decent place and time to grab dinner too, but...
THE SPREAD:
From the layout table plan (some were not wholly accurate to on-site changes), the spread was pretty large, offering a variety of 2D-ccentric art-styles with plenty of merch. Pretty decent choices for upcoming year-end gifting, methinks!
Of course I managed to find a few 3D-orientated creations, from friends old and new, and walked away with collectible toys more than I did printed art!
What I appreciated too, was the decently spaced aisle between rows of tables/booths. But to be fair, I perused the space during Friday, and have no idea how insanely packed the weekends would be tho LOL
BUY BUY BUY:
Consider this a "pop-up event", with vendors accepting CASH (*Do not expect any ATMs where you're at), and electronic payments ala PayNow etc for Singapore-based vendors, but for isiting artists = CASH lah! And dpon;t go giving a $50 bill to buy a $5 keychain please? JUSE all that $50 to buy more! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I resisted hard to splurge, but am now kicking myself for not picking up more, as I look thru and post my coverage, and ultimately unable to return to sate my desires AAARRRRRRR
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I will be featuring a closer-look at the collectibles/toys I'd seen and touched at IAF (This is a "toys blog" after all :p), with most coverage first seen on my Insta hash tagged #TOYSREVILIAF2024, cheers.
