You're slurping your fishball noodle soup, and along comes strains of music wafting through the air. You look up and behold, there is a busker belting out a popular tune. This isn't a food court or some fancy restaurant. This is your regular hawker centre, revamped and revitalised.

Since the launch of the Hawker Centres Upgrading Programme (HUP) in 2001, some 48 centres out of 125 have been spruced up, given a new look and a new lease of life. Out went stuffy, poorly ventilated rows of food stalls. Instead, stylishly-designed, open-air landscaping took its place, giving dining at these very uniquely Singaporean institutions a whole new experience.

"I remember as a kid, going to our neighbourhood hawker centre with my family for dinner. It was so dark, greasy and smoky. There'd be piles of plates stacked up on the floor waiting to be cleared. There'd be a few stray cats feeding on the leftover food that was lying around," Fred Then, 38, reminisces. "Now the upgraded hawker centres look great. They're clean and nicely designed."

And it's not just a cosmetic face-lift, but a complete makeover with weekend fringe activities thrown in. Take the East Cost Lagoon Food Village for instance. On most weekends, you'll find an entire acrobatic troupe literally swinging and hanging out there, entertaining the crowd. You might also find a good bargain at the flea market in Commonwealth Crescent Market, organised on the first Sunday of the month. At one hawker centre in Tampines, you can even surf the web on a free wireless Internet connection. Some 80 centres have organised such fringe activities since August 2005 to inject fun and buzz in these Singapore icons.

Not surprisingly, the response from both patrons and stallholders alike has been positive. These activities drew more crowds and improved business. In fact, 71% of respondents in a MEWR survey showed that patrons would visit hawker centres more often if there were such activities.

With such welcoming responses, NEA will continue to work with the hawkers associations to help organise these fringe activities. A Q&A guidebook was recently produced to help grassroots organisations and hawker associations understand the procedures and requirements for implementing these activities. There is even a list of buskers and event organisers in the guidebook so that they can be contacted directly. Likewise, buskers and stallholders can call the hawker centre association in the hawker centre if they are interested in a rent-free space to perform or sell their wares.

With good value-for-money food served in a hip, resort-style alfresco environment complete with weekend entertainment and a vibrant buzz, hawker centres are certainly moving with the times and have become a hit with both the young and old.