EXPERIENCE SINGAPORE LIVE! IN STOCKHOLM

Singapore celebrates its 36th National Day in Stockholm with one of the most ambitious feats in staging a mini-Singapore in the heart of the Swedish capital.

From August 9 to 12, Stockholm's Kungstradgarden will be transformed into an exciting, vibrant, tropical street carnival, to give Swedish residents and visitors a rare and vivid experience of Singapore Live!

Organised by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Singapore Live! fills Kungstradgarden with a diversity of food, cultural and entertainment experiences of one of Asia's most exciting destinations.

To be officially launched by STB's Chief Executive Mr Yeo Khee Leng, Singapore Live! extends over an 11,000 square metre area within one of Stockholm's most prominent public gardens.

The centrepiece of Singapore Live! is a built-up replica of Singapore's ethnic districts of Chinatown, Little India and Arab Street, from which visitors can sample authentic Singaporean cuisine. Experiential tents will showcase Singapore's ethnic diversity. Visitors can look forward to unique cultural experiences such as henna painting, Chinese calligraphy and opera face painting. In addition, two mini-stages will showcase culinary demonstrations and conduct workshops on traditional dances and stilt-walking.

The highlight of the four-day Singapore Live! is a 45-minute choreographed performance which will capture the spirit of New Asia - Singapore. This Grand Finale, appropriately named "Singapore - Live it up! Spectacular" will feature, among other things, a concert by Ambient Asia, one of Singapore's most successful bands renown for its fusion music. The party will end each day with an open-air disco with music provided by one of Zouk's pioneering DJs, Adam Low.

Singapore Live! aims to leave behind an intense and memorable experience of Singapore as a City of Diverse Cultures, City for the Arts, a Garden City, a Fun City and a Gateway City.

Mr Yeo said: "Singapore Live! is STB's first ever attempt to stage a consumer promotion of such magnitude in the Nordics. We are confident this will communicate the essence of Singapore ? a city that has it all. We hope this introduction to Singapore will be the first of many that will open new discoveries for our friends in Sweden and Scandinavia."

STB's Area Director Europe, Ms Magdalene Lee, added : "Sweden and the other Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland and Norway are very promising markets for Singapore. Together, they generate close to 10 per cent of our total visitor arrivals from Europe. This makes the Nordic countries the third largest source of visitor arrivals for Singapore from the region."

"Through the intense sensual interaction of colour, sounds, sights, smells and taste at Singapore Live! we hope to entrench in the minds of the Nordic people, an association of Singapore with the attributes of the ultimate dream holiday destination; one which is vibrant, cosmopolitan and modern, but still charmingly Asian."