GUARDIAN OF THE GRASS

If you stopped by the National Stadium in early March to attend one of Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour concerts, you were probably too busy enjoying the extravaganza to notice that the venue was missing its bright green pitch.

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Under the direction of Singapore Sports Hub's pitch architect Jonathan Teo, the turf had been dismantled and stored in 800 individual rows at an off-site nursery.

"Between the heavy stage and the thousands of people spread out across the floor for each concert, there is just no way the grass would survive," says Mr Teo, 56.

Once Swift and her crew had vacated the venue, he and a team of landscapers reinstalled and acclimatized the grass for another important event: the football World Cup Qualifier match between Singapore and China on March 21.

Not long after, it had to be removed again-this time for three nights of concerts by American singer Bruno Mars in April.

"I have to look at the events calendar to see what has been planned and how they stack up-for instance, the profile of each event and how much time there is to dismantle the pitch and put it back in time for whatever is coming up," says Mr Teo, who joined Singapore Sports Hub in 2017.

For a few weeks every year, there is no grass at all in the National Stadium because a new turf is being grown in the nursery under Mr Teo's direction.