School Bands in Singapore - Singapore Youth Festival

Singapore Youth Festival

Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) is an annual event organized by Singapore’s Ministry of Education to celebrate the achievements of youth in their Co-Curriculum Activities (CCAs). It serves to highlight all activities that take place in every school and that contribute in one way or another to the total development of the students. The annual event engages students from schools across Singapore, who are involved in all performing arts, sports and uniformed group CCAs. It is an event that usually starts in April and culminates in a month long celebration in July.

SYF was first launched in 1966. The opening ceremony was held at the Jalan Besar Stadium in 1967. Initial activities in the early festivals only included music and dance, but it gradually extended to field sports, art forms, and later, mass displays.

The SYF Central Judging was later introduced in 1968. It continues to be an annual event during which most schools' performing arts groups compete at their respective levels. In 1968, three years shortly after the Band Project was launched, school bands started to compete at the SYF Central Judging. Till today, the CCA Branch of the Ministry of Education organises the Central Judging of Concert Bands (Primary Schools, Secondary Schools and Junior Colleges), Central Judging of Display Bands (Secondary Schools) and the Assessment of Marching Bands (Secondary Schools) in alternate years. The involvement of school bands in the annual SYF is evident, as 117 secondary school bands and 14 junior college bands with 7,709 participants were involved in the SYF Central Judging of Concert Bands in 2001.