400 to 2,000 people attended Nas Daily Botanic Gardens event, various S'pore media guesstimated

It is hard to count crowd size.

Belmont Lay | April 21, 2019, 01:56 AM

A whole bunch of people turned up at the Singapore Botanic Gardens on Saturday, April 20, from 4pm to 6pm to see Nas Daily.

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via Jaevis Lam

This was despite the rain and the disapproval of some Singaporeans who felt the travel vlogger was given too much leeway to engage Singaporeans in social discourse in an open public space.

How many people turned up?

According to a Lianhe Zaobao guesstimate, some 400 to 500 people were in attendance.

The Straits Times initial guesstimate also said there were 500 people.

Channel 8 reported that there was 1,000 or so.

Estimates by Botanic Gardens, as quoted by CNA, said some 2,000 people showed up.

via Kyros Koh

Who else was at the event?

The event was the first meet-up with fans since the 27-year-old social media celebrity, whose real name is Nuseir Yassin, arrived in Singapore barely three days ago.

His girlfriend and fellow video blogger, Alyne Tamir, 28, was also at the event.

via Ron Phua

Why Singapore?

Yassin, a Palestinian-Israeli Harvard graduate, told reporters before the event why he favoured Singapore so much.

ST reported him saying: "In many countries that I've lived in, there's a lot of sh*t under the table. And I felt like it wasn't a fair game. And I believe that Singapore is a fair game."

Yassin also said he isn't in this video-making gig for the money: "You don't have to take my word for it, obviously, but in making 1,000 videos, 98 percent of them I lost money on. So I know a thing or two about staying true and rising above the money. Because if I was for the money I would be someone who'd put up Coca Cola in my videos left and right."

via Munkhdul Badral Bontoi

How he got event up and running so quickly

Yassin revealed that he had engaged an events company and a lawyer to take care of paperwork for him to get the event going.

These formalities include seeking a police permit for the fan meet and applying for an Employment Pass.

What happened at the event?

Today said Yassin gave out T-shirts, responded to fans’ questions, and asked his fans for possible video ideas to work on while in Singapore.

Some of the fans' ideas include doing videos about Singapore’s train system, to the deep tunnel sewerage system.

Who attended the event?

According to Today, CNA and ST, people from all ages, both locals and foreigners were in the audience.

via Nazmul Khan

A 34-year old German woman had rebooked her flight from Tanzania to attend the meet-up, CNA said.

This was besides the many Malaysian fans who made the trip to Singapore for the meet-up after Yassin had been denied entry into Malaysia as he holds an Israeli passport.

A 65-year-old man was also present at the event with family. He said he was there because he felt inspired by Nas Daily videos, CNA reported.

The last Nas Daily event in August 2018 in Singapore attracted at least 700 people to an area outside the Singapore Indoor Stadium on a day's notice.

Security for the event

Security presence was relatively light at the Botanic Gardens.

Several employees from National Parks Board (NParks) and Botanic Gardens were on standby, while Yassin had his own security team.

According to Botanic Gardens, no special arrangements were made for the event and their presence there was their “normal in-house security”.

Yassin also said he had hired two Singaporeans for his company.

Top photo via Len Caoc