[Long Post With Photos] Why The Hell I Toutured Myself Visiting The Fiacking Airshow?
Last week, I happily planned that I wanted to visit this Singapore Airshow, for the 1st time, because I never visit the previous Asian Aerospace held here. Thursday night, I booked the $20 ticket online, printed out. Friday, I kena accident at home injured my face just underneath my left eye. People advised me not to go, I should stay at home resting instead because the cut is quite deep. I thought I already got the ticket and it was for today only, might as well go, because other than my eye slightly uncomfortable, every thing’s alright. So I went.
$20 included RETURN ride of shuttle bus from Pasir Ris. I stayed Tampines, of cause I chose this service. When I reach Pasir Ris at about 11am, the queue to shuttle bus pick up point was very very very long. It made many many turns and I could not see the end of the queue. I guessed I needed to wait for maybe 20 buses just to get the free ride. So immediately I went to Tanah Merah, took second option. There are paid shuttle bus service from Expo MRT and some hotels in town, costs $5. I managed to get on the bus at about 1140am. And I did not know that, the nightmare just started…
The traffic jam started maybe 2 or 3 km from the location. The closer we get, the heavier the jam. It was the worst after the bus made the turn into the straight road leading to the venue. We saw many people taking cabs getting off their cabs and walked, and they were faster! But we couldn’t! The bus crawled and crawled and crawled to the designated dropping point. By the time it was already 1230pm. The Black Knights already flying! So, not wanting to waste time going into the venue, we all stood beside the big big longkang to watch. We got to queue again just to go into the place where the ticket house and security gantry are, and later queued to get through the security check. And I realized that, no one checked my ticket! No one! I saw a few staffs checking some other queues, but there were just none doing so for the other queues! Then what the hell I bought the ticket for if I can get in FREE?
After the gantry, it was another queue just to get to the display area! And there were just many many many people. You see people queuing to buy drinks, queuing to take photos with local pilots, angmoh pilots, queuing to get on some display machines to take photo again, queuing to buy coupon then later queuing to use their coupon to buy food. It was just crowds, people, crowds, queues everywhere. I got so exhausted that when I finally walked into the exhibition hall, I had totally no interest in anything. I just walked 1 round, and left.
No, the nightmare did not end there! It was another disaster to even leave the venue, and it was worse than going in! It was there I saw many red hat police officers (what are they called? Anti Riot Police? don’t know lah, those ang chiah one lah), together with Cisco and normal police, doing the job. Whole big chunk of crowd just squeezed and waited for the officers to released us so that we could rushed to the bus or taxi pickup point. The officers would released us in batches.
The worst part came when we reached the pickup points. Various queues were designated for buses going to different hotels, to Tanah Merah and Pasir Ris. But hell, I bet you can differentiate which queue was for what location. The staffs basically had to stand outside to shout for whatever bus that was in front so that people in the queue, or not in the queue can get on. Those were supposed to be paid buses but I doubt they got the time to collect money 1 by 1 (cash or Ezlink). Then, worst one was the Pasir Ris one. Whole cluster of people just squeezed, pushed, rushed to front, to chiong for the bus available. If not for the officers there, it would just be a riot. It reminded me of the scene in <<I Am Legend>> where they evacuated the NY city and everyone was escaping for their life, so messy. But even so, they were more civilized! You saw the officer in front shouted “3 more, 3 more for the 1st bus“, and the people in front of him just ignored never move and those at the back, even they wanted to also could not because they were blocked. You heard officers shouting “HOLD, HOLD“, “Don’t cut queue!” (in the 1st place, there was never any queue, just a big crowd of human). I never expected to see such scenes at a international trade shows. It was a riot scene man!
It was such a disgrace to Singapore because just beside them, there were many foreigners waiting in the long long taxi queue or the paid bus queues, and they could just see what happened. A graceful society? No way man.
I hope this is a good lesson learned for the organizer and government. The crowd management was so terrible, how are you going to manage the crowd of F1? Youth Olympic?
I think in the future, I shall ask whoever I know to make a trader pass or media pass for me, just to visit during trade day but no more public day. For people who want to take photos, you can forget it also.
Some photos of the crowd. As of aircrafts, I did not take much, and was too upset, haven’t sorted out yet.
The flying display just finished. Those inside rushed out, those outside, wanna chiong in.
People waiting outside
Still waiting
Inside, everywhere people
People people people
Taken while still inside queuing to come out. Whole stretch of human!
So many ang chiah?
I was inside the crowd. Like riot boh?
OH MY GOSH!!! How the hell am I going to survive this tomorrow??? Jia lat liao lah!! Should I just give it a miss? Waaaaaahhhhh!!!
…… bring foldable chair, cap, sunscreen, PSP, magazine, a lot of water…
Better still, forget about yr ticket and static display. Just go somewhere along Changi Beach near the SAF Ferry Terminal. You can see poor recruits booking in to Tekong for their BMT and also the planes without any obstruction.
I should have done that:(
the first pic looks so jialat!!
this is really a bad planning
I was offered 4 free tickets to visit on the public days. Luckily I turn it down else I will definitely get an earful from wifey for torturing the whole family, towing the kids under the sorching heat and being part of the mayhem!
Uniquely Singapore and “world class hub”. I am going to a vacation overseas come Youth Olympics 2010 where half the planet will be here in Singapore and it wouldn’t be so crowded overseas. LOL!!!!
This is the worst of the airshows i’ve been. Ive been to Asean Aerospace twice, and this is the worst of the lot.
Anticipating a huge crowd and crowded roads (from lastaerospace) and the extra $20 to pay for carpark, i parked in Pasir Ris to get on the shuttle bus to Airshow.
I started queuing at 11am. At that time, the queue was already long. One guy posted a pic on how the queue went around whitesands, past MRT and to end of interchange. All true man, except the situation was MUCH worse.
The organiser DID A VERY BAD job organising the crowd. The IC ( a 40 yrd old middle age man) there has no clue what to do. He just stood ard, made phone calls, and his ka kia, all temps, just stood ard, doing nothing. It got so bad, that lines were cutting all over, and people exiting MRT station got into the queue, resulting in a virtual standstill of queue.
The police had to be called in, and poline lines were erected. Still it took some time for them to get their act right, for the queue was so long and so bad, that it was nearly impossible to erect a long enough lines to contain all of the queue.
Any case, after queuing for 2 hours, i took the bus (wih 2 foriegn colleagues) at 1pm. We still hoped that we can catch a glimpse of the dynamic display.
The bus took 35-45min, it felt better than queuing as u dont see people cutting all over. We did see the disply, but from the bus.
Thinking that we already scanned our tickets prior to bus, we thought it will be a smooth ride to the venue. Still, we queued YET again. this time 1/2 hour after arriving, to check on SECURITY.
So by the time we cleared security, herded like sheep, we actually see our first display was 2.30pm there abouts.
And lo and behold, we were done with all the displays in 45 min. The exhibtors were not all there, just empty exhibits. There were more people sheltering from the heat than anything interesting.
Left at 3.30pm after squeezing and queuing our way out. Fortunately the bus out was much faster, although messier than coming in.
In conclusion, the fault lies not on SMRT or the POLICE, cos they sent enough buses and policemen. The fault lies squarely on the organiser. Despite all the nice posters above, who probably got complimentary tickets, i paid a good $60 (for 3), the show imo was a disaster. it was hardly worth the effort, the organisation was bad from the get go, there was nothing to see, crowd control were non-existent from the organiser, shows were weak, and i definitely will not go to any Singapore Airshow ever.. period.
I am a stupid one who visited the air show.. got myself totally sunburnt in the scorching sun… the consoling thing is that I managed to watch the Black Knights performance.It really a crappy event with lousy organisers… policemen who enjoyed air con in the event hall instead of controlling crowd… how angry!!
looks bad.. I didn’t even bother
i went on trade day, hah…
do you people seriously think they bother about how the public enjoy the show? they just want the aircraft to be sold on the trade days and the general public can faint and die while in the queue for all they care… i wasn’t wearing a suit that day, and none would even look at me at the corner of their eyes.. welcome to planet earth people
i mean, somepeople bought 50 planes that day i went
compared tothe public rushing in with that few bucks for ticket..
it’s still peanuts unless the public days is for an entire week
cheers
They should expect the huge crowd from the tickets sold, and yet they weren’t ready for it. I think Singapore should prioritise crowd maintenance for the upcoming big events.
Having gone to the previous Asian Aerospaces & air shows during Air Force day at paya lebar airport, i couldnt help but feel strongly cheated & disgusted that its nothing but a money making scheme for those in the aerospace industry & the organisers who want to make a quick buck.
I was at there on friday & unfortunately was dragged by my friends & girlfriend to be there on saturday too. Having experienced the trauma that was on friday, even meeting at 10am to queue up & hop on the shuttle bus from Pasir Ris, we found ourselves stuck in probably a queue that we could enter into the guiness book of records.
Even taking a cab to the airshow took us 45 mins to get there & $20 poorer.
Im not really impressed by the false advertising of it being bigger & better than previous asian aerospaces. Even the black knights couldnt lift madness that was of the airshow. I really felt that the organizers should have pulled out all the stops at least to bring the red arrows, the thunderbirds or the blue angels to come in for the flight display. Even previous asian aerospaces had staged the flight display twice or 3 times a day so that the crowd wouldnt cluster during a specific time.
With all the hype, there was not much of planes that a fan would want to see… instead, private jets took up most of the exhibits… one might wonder what a F-22, one of the fiercest looking fighter planes berthed in one corner whereas the SAF took up as much space as they could with stuff we can find in the army.
Going back home was just as bad as going there. I cant complain about the crowd control… the police & the stewards did their best to ensure everybody got on the bus as fast as they could… It’s just that the planning & organisation of the crowd entering & leaving the airshow wasnt much to be desired. Imagine touchwood, if there was a international incident or a terrorist attack, earthquake, etc… we definitely wouldnt be able to evacuate the crowd efficiently. What pisses me off is that the organisers just made this another money making opportunity for them with the transports. So much for Youth Olympic Games & the F1 this year… are we really biting off more than what we can chew?
Having been to the 1st three Asian Aerospace, the first when I was in sec 4, I’ve long given up going. As far as I can recall, in every single aerospace exhibition to date, there’s the usual F15, F16 and F18. There’s nothing new to see up close!! Granted 1 year there was a MIG 29 and a Typoon mockup and that was the only best year.
Public days are pathetic with many exhibits empty. Ticket price went up with each event but you essentially sees the same static military displays. The flying display is the only thing worth going for and this you don’t need a ticket, just go to the nearby beach. Of course don’t do it on public days. I caught the Black Knight on Wed and frankly I wasn’t impressed. Till today I cannot forget the US Airforce Thunderbird’s display when they performed along East Coast park in the 80s.
This year’s aerospace exhibition is backed by the government of course all the PR materials would claim it to be bigger and better. Bigger and better in what sense? Definitely not for the static displays which is pathetic compared to all the previous Asian Aerospace exhibitions.
Prior to the event, I’ve been visting the Singapore Airshow website daily for info on the aircrafts on static display and I couldn’t find any. This to a military nut like me is a clear indication that this year’s event would be smaller and worse than before. And I was right.
But why you guys so desire to go to the Air Show?
I mean, what’s the catch?
The organizer should have set a limit to the number of tickets available for sale. By trying to maximize their profit with unlimited supply of tickets for sale when the location can’t handle this amount of crowd, is simply asking for trouble.