All signs point to 2019 Ultra Singapore shifting indoors to Sands Expo & Convention Centre Halls D, E and F.
This past week has been an emotional roller-coaster for festival-goers (named “Ultranauts”) of this year’s edition of Ultra Singapore, with concerns fuelled by the rumoured cancellation of the event. The annual EDM festival is scheduled to happen this weekend, on June 8 and 9, 2019.
With just five days to go before the event and receiving almost no updates from the organizers, ticket-buyers started to worry.
Attempts to reach out to Ultra Singapore on their social media platforms have gone unanswered, while ticketing platform RedTix informed customers that tickets will only be released on June 3, at 4pm. However, some customers only reportedly started receiving tickets later that night, at around 8.45pm, while according to others, they were still waiting for theirs.
Rumours soon started spreading online, with various news platforms reporting that word on the ground was that the festival will be shifted to a new location, or worse, cancelled altogether. The news understandably shocked ticket-buyers, who started demanding for answers online, with some dubbing the event “Singapore’s Fyre Festival”.
In the evening of June 3, the ZYRUP team visited the field next to Marina Bay Sands dubbed “Ultra Park” for the annual event – only to find it untouched.
An event organizer familiar with the management of large-scale outdoor events tells us that it is “almost impossible” for an event the scale of Ultra Singapore to be put together in under a week unless a “miracle happens”.
ZYRUP understands that around this time last year, with a week to go to the event, the stage was already set up.
Marina Bay Sands representatives declined to reveal any information and referred us to the official pages for Ultra Singapore.
However, when we approached personnel on the grounds, they revealed that the festival will indeed shift indoors. According to the personnel, the festival will be held in Halls D, E and F, located at B2 of Sands Expo & Convention Centre, just across Ultra Park.
When the ZYRUP team went to visit the halls, they were still largely empty. However, ZYRUP understands from a source familiar with the event that production for the indoor venue is underway, and is indeed expected to be held at Sands Expo & Convention Centre.
The new venue will be familiar to the Ultra Singapore festival-goers, as it was where the Road to Ultra event took place back in 2015.
No official information has been revealed as to why the event is no longer happening at its original outdoor venue. There can be a multitude of reasons for this, although it is commonly understood that for massive events of this scale, due diligence has to be conducted before production can be greenlit.
If anything, Ultranauts can heave a sigh of relief that the event is not cancelled (for now), and hey, bringing the party indoors means no humid weather, wet skies, and muddy shoes.
It is expected for Ultra Singapore to make an official announcement soon.
ZYRUP’s attempt to reach Ultra Singapore for a statement was not answered.