The first day of the two-day Sports Hub Community Play Day kicked off in spectacular style as over 10,000 participants took to the OCBC Arena with their families and friends to take part in the nostalgic carnival and amusement park festivities.
Following the success of the past editions, and the weekend coinciding with Father’s Day, this edition of the Community Play Day is held over two days for the first time.
Guest of Honour, Mr Baey Yam Keng, Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth launched the event and also took part in the Mass Workout together with 600 beneficiaries from the Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund.
At OCBC Arena Hall 1, the young and young at heart alike had a wonderful time at the inflatables playground with more than 20 activity stations available. Throughout the day, the public enjoyed free fitness classes, learn-to-play tennis sessions with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), and mingled with our national athletes at the Team Singapore booth. In the evening, the crowd flocked over to the Bubble Show while some geared up for the first ever Glowing Zumba session.
The trip down memory lane continued at the Arena Lobby where the history of Singapore Sports Hub, the old Wonderland Amusement Park and snippets of Singapore’s past were presented to visitors at the heritage gallery. Participants also went on free tours of the Singapore Sports Museum while others got their faces painted and took pictures at the instant photobooth.
At the OCBC Arena Park, friends and families spent the day living it up like back in the good old days, taking part in various carnival games and amusement rides such as the classic spinning cups, swinging chairs, and trackless train. There were also a series of workshops and public try-outs by Parkour Singapore.
Mr Chin Sau Ho, Senior Director for Corporate Communications and Stakeholder Management for the Singapore Sports Hub commented, “The Community Play Day is one of Singapore Sports Hub’s major initatives aimed at bringing the community closer through sporting activities and lifestyle events. We also constantly innovate to allow the public to experience new activities and encourage a more active lifestyle, as well as give emerging interest groups the support and exposure for their sport or activity.”
Mr Ashiq Idris, Programme Director for Experience Sports, Singapore Sports Hub, added, “With this edition coinciding with Father’s Day, we brought back playground of yesteryears through the old school carnival rides and games, filled the OCBC Arena with the popular giant inflatable playgrounds of this era and also introduced activities like Parkour, which is gaining popularity among the youths.”
Launched in June 2016, the Experience Sports programme – an all inclusive in-house community engagement programme to encourage the public to adopt an active lifestyle with free fitness sessions and lifestyle activities – which includes the Sports Hub Community Play Day have attracted over 174,000 participants from different communities to date.
The fifth edition of the Sports Hub Community Play Day is organized in partnership with the National Heritage Board, Sport Singapore, and Focus on the Family, which continues through to Sunday, 18 June 2017. The next edition of the Sports Hub Community Play Day will take place on 16 September 2017 at the National Stadium.
