After six years of preparation, *SCAPE, a concept consolidated from a survey conducted by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports in 2004, is now ready to launch with an exciting festivities from 19th or 20th June 2010. The event will showcase a sample of the variety of activities that will take place at *SCAPE all year round.

Named "Embrace The Now", which is another way of saying "seize the day", the festival will showcase the vitality of the young people, who will be getting themselves involved in activities they are passionate in.

Local and international acts like Postbox, The Fire Fight, Mae and Inch Chua, By2, hip hop dance performances, roving magic shows, sports events and many more are lined up for the party this weekend.

The winners of *SCAPE's very own New Media Ambassadors Quest will also be unveiled on 20th June, at the presence of Guest of Honour, Mr Baey Yam Keng, Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Information, Communication and the Arts.

Besides the whole array of performances lined up, a monumental event will be occurring on the streets of Orchard Road itself.

To show their support for *SCAPE, three contingents of approximately 200 people each, representing organizations and partners such as StarHub, O School, Netball Association, tertiary institutions like Nanyang Polytechnic and Nanyang Technological University, and public organizations like South East CDC, will be marching towards *SCAPE. Young people, like dancers from O School, basketball players from Singapore Slingers and many others will also get a chance to flaunt their skills and talents at designated spots along the routes.

The march is significant of camaraderie and support for the final fruition of *SCAPE, both as a building, and also as an organization. Senior Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, Mr Teo Ser Luck, will be personally leading one of the contingents.

Guest of Honour, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, will grace the Official Launch ceremony, which will end in a dazzling display of pyrotechnics.

About *SCAPE

From the youth consultation exercise conducted in 2004, six conceptual spaces were created: PLAYSPACE, WAREHOUSE, GRID, CACHE, STREET + MARKET, STUDIO. With a mission of being the one-stop celebrated resource hub for all aspiring youth, *SCAPE aims to develop and inspire the young people of the country.

More than just a venue space, *SCAPE is an ecosystem made up of events, facilities and partners which enable it to be a self-sustaining business model. Some key industry partners taking up these institutional and commercial spaces are Ocean Butterflies, MediaCorp 987FM, O School, Grid MMS, Social Development Network (SDN) and Community Health Assessment Team (CHAT).

Based on a "social retail colony" concept for the retail and F&B spaces, tenants at *SCAPE are stringently curated based on their proposed social marketing efforts.

The first of its kind, *SCAPE is a community of socially-conscious retailers that target a new generation of socially-educated and aware consumers. With a promotional calendar centered on social awareness days such as World Aids Day, events will take place at *SCAPE around these dates with retailers' participation, making it a consistent theme running through the entire building for the event day.

"With a youth support ecosystem of commercial shops, media companies, training organizations, social sectors, public sectors and even the unions, *SCAPE envisions the youth to develop a
deep sense of ownership to the new building. Through the young people's participation in events and involvement in our programmes, we hope to inspire and engage them so that they will see
*SCAPE as their very own," says Ms Evelyn Lau, General Manager of *SCAPE.

*SCAPE's spectrum of events

By hosting events based on a wide spectrum of genres of interests, *SCAPE effectively caters all the interests of young people. Genres such as music, dance, urban sports, new media, entrepreneurship, visual arts and theatre are all-encompassing to accommodate all the various subgenres that can proliferate under these umbrella categories.

To congregate and harnass the multi-genre talents and skills of the young people, *SCAPE created 360 Without Borders, a youth community which seeks to bring young people who want to drive positive changes to the world.

With all these and its ideal location in Orchard, the heart of town, *SCAPE is a natural point of congregation for the youth-related. *SCAPE, at the forefront of youth interest and initiatives, brings all youth organizations to a central location where they can synergize to bring the best to the young people of the country.

Industry partners who believe in *SCAPE and its contributions to the younger generation have brought their events to *SCAPE, targeting at the youth segment. Some of the past highly successful events include the Redbull Street Style Qualifiers, Netball Association's "Get Energized for Singapore 2010", the BMW 5 series Launch, Ocean Butterflies' JJ Party 4 (concert by local Chinese popular singer JJ Lin) and Singapore Media Fiesta.