Singapore TIGER Chilli Crab Festival
Singapore Food Festival
1 - 31 July 2006
Singapore

The Singapore Food Festival 2006 enjoyed a fiery kick-start with the 'Singapore TIGER Chilli Crab Festival'   held at the Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza from 1 to 2 July, this year's Opening Celebrations of the Singapore Food Festival - its biggest yet - set Orchard Road a-buzz with a riot of colours and gastronomic activities inspired by the most iconic of Singapore dishes - Chilli Crab. The event also suitably reflected this year's theme - A Celebration of Singaporean Cuisine.

Guest-of-Honour and Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Mr S Iswaran,  took  the opportunity on his first day in office as Minister of State to declare the Singapore Food Festival open. The pedestrian mall along Orchard Road, fronting Wisma Atria, Ngee Ann City and Meritus Mandarin, took on a festive mood as invited guests, media, festival partners, food critics, food enthusiasts and crab-hungry members of the public good-naturedly jostled to sample the "star" dish - Chilli Crab.

The month-long Singapore Food Festival (1 to 31 July 2006), into its 13th year, is co-organised by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Reed Exhibitions and presented by Network for Electronic Transfers (Singapore) Pte Ltd (NETS).

The Festival attracts thousands to its packed calendar of free-admission core and ticketed fringe events, which averages 10 to 15 per cent tourist attendance.  Established as an annual signature feature on the city's buzzing events calendar and a key highlight this time of the year alongside the Great Singapore Sale, the Singapore Food Festival distinguishes and positions Singapore as a vibrant lifestyle destination with a distinctive food culture and colourful food heritage.

"Singapore is already recognised internationally as a food paradise and its diverse dining options are key draws for both leisure and business visitors all year round. Enhancing such a standing is the annual Singapore Food Festival, which celebrates our Uniquely Singapore destination personality. The Festival is a vital platform for Singapore to profile its home-grown cuisine, local food brands as well as Singaporean culinary personalities through unique gastronomic experiences offered exclusively during the Festival period," says Ms Joycelyn Ng, Deputy Director, Leisure Marketing and Events Management, at the Singapore Tourism Board. "Dining will continue to be one of the key strategies that will bolster Singapore's tourism vision of welcoming 17 million visitors and recording S$30 billion in tourism receipts by the year 2015."

Mr Ed Ng, President, Singapore & Malaysia, Reed Exhibitions, adds, "This year's Opening Celebrations is the Festival's biggest so far - and is reflective of how popular the Singapore Food Festival has grown over the 13 years of its existence. Our food culture is well-known globally, and we rightly celebrate it each year. We are proud to be co-organisers of this event for the second year running. Judging by the response we have today, the Singapore Food Festival is off to a rousing start!"

As part of the plethora of activities lined up this weekend, Crab Dancers will descend on Orchard Road to entertain the public with their moves, while crowds tuck heartily into the array of mouth-watering crab and shellfish dishes offered by more than 30 booths at the Opening Celebrations. Onlookers can also witness as Power 98 deejays and a team of chefs launch the wacky Crab Soccer match in a friendly strictly no-claws-barred play-off. Another potential crowd-pleaser is the finger-licking crab-peeling competition which will crown the "Fastest Claw of the East".

Commenting on Tiger's partnership at this year's opening celebrations of the Singapore Food Festival, Mr Edmund Ng, Marketing Manager for Tiger, says: "It has been our corporate mission to export the ultimate Singaporean beer-food experience to the world. At the Singapore TIGER Chilli Crab Festival, foreign visitors and locals can enjoy the pairing of two national icons - chilli crab dishes by renowned top chefs in Singapore complemented with the smooth, well-bodied taste of Tiger."