Lightsabers galore at the Star Wars: The Force Awakens Singapore Premiere

BB-8 awaits movie goers at Shaw Lido.

Marcus Goh is a Singapore television scriptwriter. He’s also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. He Tweets/Instagrams at Optimarcus and writes at marcusgohmarcusgoh.com. The views expressed are his own.

The Star Wars: The Force Awakens Singapore Premiere on Wednesday (December 16) gave lucky Singaporean fans a chance to experience Star Wars: The Force Awakens before sneak previews started at midnight.

VIP area before the event.

The event started at 7.30 pm, with the 501st Singapore Garrison, FightSaber and many other celebrity guests present.

A Singaporean Kylo Ren.

Other Star Wars cosplayers also turned up in full force, lighting up the event with their lightsabers.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens signage.

Posters, standees and many photoworthy backdrops were also available for fans to snap away.

Character posters.

VIP area.

The calm before The Force Awakens.

More character posters.

Guests arrive.

VIP guests had a chance to chat with various Star Wars characters before the event started.

Jedi and Sith.

Calmly talking to a lightsaber wielder.

R2D2 makes his entrance.

The highlight, though was, the appearance of the 501st Singaporean Garrison. They turned up not just as the usual Stormtrooper legions, but virtually every major character in Star Wars.

Eager photographers awaiting the 501st Singapore Garrison.

Stormtroopers lead the charge.

An assortment of Stormtroopers.

Just like human action figures!

Revenge of the Sith.

Clone Troopers follow behind.

The contingent continues.

Return of the Jedi.

The hum of the lightsabers.

The cast of Star Wars.

Darth Vader mingles.

Sith vs Jedi.

ForceSaber also treated audiences to a fast-paced lightsaber duel which ended with neither Sith nor Jedi drawing a conclusive victory.

ForceSaber wielding lightsabers.

Before the movie premiere.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens beginning soon!

The movie premiere began at 8.40pm, but the lines to get in started much earlier than that. Guests were pleasantly surprised to find a complimentary poster, popcorn and drink provided in each seat.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in cinemas 17 December, 2015 (Thursday).