The Meadow at Gardens by the Bay

I like the greenness of the meadow which is frankly how a meadow should be.
It is a huge grass field with a spacious walkway around it. I can see how it can be considered a tight squeeze when you have thousands of people leaving at the same time if there is a concert. Otherwise it is quite a pleasant stroll, with a vastness which is quite rare in Singapore.
The music can be very loud when there are concerts so that is kudos to the sound system or the way the meadow is built? I remembered being able to hear sounds coming from the Meadow when I stayed a night at the tower in Marina Bay Sands nearest to it.
If you park at the Meadow area, it is quite a trek to get to the Canopy or Visitor Center area, especially if you are in a a hurry. Allow yourself at least 15 to 25 minutes to get there, and bring an umbrella since the parking lot is not underground.

Jason Mraz was in Singapore! I was so enthusiastic to see him play live as I heard he is awesome live! When I heard the venue was at Gardens by the Bay, I was like, «Ohhh perfect for Jason Mraz who is like in love with the Earth!» My friend and I were so excited that we went to Marina Bay MRT and took a bus to the location.
Well, the location was. interesting. It was pretty barren. which was fine since it is a concert. so I can’t be expecting a lot of things to see. Then we saw tents selling Quiznos subs and drinks. Here’s where I should have known things were gonna go downhill. Firstly, the subs. it’s pretty clear these tents were set up with the intention to drill a big hole in your wallet. I got a tuna sub for SGD 8. JUST THE SUB. If you go to a Quiznos outlet, it would have came with a soup and a drink. Here, JUST THE SUB. Ok. Fine. I mean we’ve gotta eat since we need energy to watch the concert right? And there’s nowhere else to buy our food anyway. So I went to get water. this is where it was just as amazing. $ 6 for a bottle of plain water. Wow. My water must have been flown in from the crystal clear mountain springs eh? Ok. Fine. We need to keep hydrated anyway.
While waiting at the front of the stage at 6pm, the organisers keep telling us not to sit and to STAND because it’s a free standing concert. therefore it makes sense for us to stand and to MOVE forward even though there was no one around. Oh well. Fine. As it got more and more crowded and hot as we were packed like sardines, we decided to move to the hills and sit down and enjoy Jason Mraz’s pristine voice from there. The organisers once again told us to not sit down and stand. Like really? This is a Jason Mraz’s CONCERT. This is not a freaking ROCK concert where if we sit the chances of us being squashed is high. This is supposed to be a chill out performance.
Thankfully, Jason Mraz came out after and all the unhappiness over the food, drinks, location, organisers were forgotten. Heck, Jason Mraz didn’t even mind that we were sitting down and chilling to his music. He gave one hell of a fantastic performance that made my money’s worth it.
After that, getting out of the location was sheer hell. It took us nearly 2 hours to get out. The organisers apparently thought it was a smart idea to do traffic control by putting up barriers and occasionally closing it off. It’s a GARDEN. WHY do you need traffic control? When Zoukout ended, there were NO traffic control and leaving was a breeze. so here? WHY? If given the option to go for a concert at this location again by the same organisers, I’m sure as heck not going to go after this nightmarish and expensive experience.

The Meadow was big disappointment as a concert venue. My friends and I were there to catch the headlining act, Jason Mraz but left wishing it was held at Fort Canning instead.
They say the grass is always greener on the other side, but at this Meadow the grass wasn’t much greener but also in appalling condition.
As concert goers, we felt like we were meant to trample and level the field which was littered with mounds of soil, much of which we could tell was hastily heaped and spread around.
I hope NParks sorts this out in the near future before hosting any more crowds.

Was there to see Jason Mraz play at the opening of the Gardens, and the place was MASSIVE.
Loved the layout of the grounds, because you can get a pretty decent view from pretty much everywhere, and the sound worked well, but I guess that’s down to the AV guys. The weather was decent too — nothing a frosty beverage couldn’t fix.
What wasn’t so cool though, was the exit plan. Coming in was a breeze, because people were allowed to enter from 6pm for an 8pm concert. Getting out? Horror. Everyone moshed towards the main exit point, and the flow was so slow, that it was a standstill for most of the way out. I was part of a crack team to traverse the side of some flower beds, hopping over a stream, and up a little slope before making it to the side of a walkway, and that allowed us to skip a sizeable section of the recommended exit path.
Considering that our exit took us nearly an hour and a half, when entering only took us ten minutes form the MRT station, this was the one thing I hope they will fix or have a better plan for before the next big event.

Being a huge Jason Mraz fan I was soooo excited when I heard that he was coming to Singapore. What made it even more exciting was that it would be held at the newly opened Meadows by the Bay! When you hear ‘Meadows’ you think lush green wide spaces, cool breeze, and the possibility of even a little stream flowing past. Unfortunately, it was a world apart from what I imagined — the ‘Meadows’ if that’s what it should be even called was filled with brown soil and big rocks and rubble everywhere upon which I stubbed my toe twice.
I thought the event was horribly organised — free standing outdoor events in Singapore should be banned — they packed the venue to its absolute maximum capacity — I felt like a sardine in a can, although a very big can no doubt.
The organisers made announcements for us to stand up and move towards the stage more than 2 hours before the event started to ‘make way for the people coming in’ even though the venue was not even half full at that stage. This led to us being squashed without reason for 2 hours before the event started.
The fact that all waterbottles had to be disposed when coming into the venue, and charging $ 6 for a small bottle of water meant lots of dehydrated people. What made it worse was that since we were made to squish and surge up to the stage more than 2 hours before the concert made it almost impossible for us to leave our spots and go get more water.
It wasn’t a great experience, the music being the ONLY redeeming factor — and we left even before the concert ended, which proved to be the correct decision after hearing how difficult it was to get out after.