Singapore International Festival of Arts • SIFA 2026

As Singapore’s premier annual performing arts festival, the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), organized by Arts House Group, showcases engaging and varied works across theatre, music, dance, film, and visual arts. Originating as the Singapore Festival of Arts in 1977, the Festival has evolved over the years, inspiring generations of art enthusiasts and practitioners. Today, the eagerly awaited Festival is a highlight of Singapore’s arts and cultural scene. SIFA remains committed to its mission of promoting the creation and presentation of both Singaporean and international works. 

From 15-30 May 2026, the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) transforms stages and public spaces into sites of play. Under the theme “Let’s Play!”, SIFA encourages audiences to explore, experiment, engage, and be inspired by the arts. From dawn soundscapes along the river to aerial performers suspended 25 feet in the air at Punggol, this year’s Festival invites audiences to rediscover the joy and significance of coming together through art. 

Organised by Arts House Group and commissioned by the National Arts Council (NAC), SIFA 2026 celebrates the Festival as a living, evolving archive, honoring heritage, nurturing local talent, and envisioning new possibilities for artistic expression. Celebrating 49 years of artistic excellence, SIFA 2026 – Let's Play! introduces an ambitious three-year curatorial arc led by Festival Director Chong Tze Chien. Titled Legacy (2026), Roots (2027), and Renaissance (2028), the trilogy traces Singapore’s performing arts landscape — honouring the past, examining the present, and imagining the future. 

A NEW THREE-YEAR VISION 

SIFA’s next chapter unfolds as a long-term artistic journey: 

● SIFA 2026: Legacy 

The opening year pays tribute to the foundations of contemporary practice. Legacy asks: What do we inherit? And what do we choose to carry forward? Through works that address mortality, artistic lineage, and cultural memory, SIFA 2026 brings the past to life. 

● SIFA 2027: Roots 

Marking SIFA’s 50th anniversary, Roots revisits the Festival’s beginnings, celebrates our pioneers, and sparks intergenerational dialogues within Singapore’s arts community.

● SIFA 2028: Renaissance 

Culminating in Renaissance, the Festival highlights hybrid forms, emerging voices, and bold experimentation where tradition and the future meet. 

"The evolution of SIFA and its impact on local performing arts and culture resonates over generations,” says Mr. Chong Tze Chien, Festival Director, SIFA. “We invite artists and audiences to reflect on the foundations that shape contemporary practice and our current standing. We encourage audiences to step out to engage and discover, and step into that dialogue: to be moved, surprised, and inspired. The Festival serves as a conduit for diverse audiences to feel the energy and possibilities of the arts, and to reap creatively and artistically through what the Festival is and what it can be." 

FIVE PROGRAMME PILLARS 

SIFA’s five programming pillars offer multiple pathways for audiences to experience the arts on their own terms: 

● Festival Stage: Large-scale performances featuring local and international works. 

● Festival Village: A hub of communal engagement, interactive installations, and outdoor performances, returning in 2026 with a vibrant, nostalgic festive spirit. 

● Festival Play!Ground: Experiential and participatory works including a vibrant roving parade designed for families, young audiences, and first-time festivalgoers. 

● Festival House: Immersive, family-friendly performances, workshops, and talks that deepen understanding and engagement with the arts. 

● Festival Late Nites: Night-time programming that encourages playful and experimental encounters. 

Together, these pillars create a vibrant constellation of performances, installations, and encounters, extending across indoor and outdoor spaces, varying scales, and extended timeframes: from epic productions to immersive, participatory works. Free performances, public installations, and communal spaces will also capture the Festival's pulse from dusk to dawn, on the Festival grounds and beyond. 

“SIFA 2026 celebrates Singapore’s artistic heritage while embracing bold experimentation,” says Ms. Sharon Tan, Executive Director of Arts House Group. “Through immersive experiences, public engagement, and accessible programmes, we are committed to elevating SIFA as a festival deeply loved by locals and recognized internationally, bringing artists and audiences together to experience the transformative power of the arts.” 

KEY HIGHLIGHTS 

At the heart of SIFA 2026 is the long-awaited return of the Festival Village at the Empress Lawn extending to the Anderson Bridge — a free, open-access hub for gathering, encounters, and artistic play. 

1. Return of the Festival Village 

Inspired by the festive spirit of the 1990s and early 2000s, the Festival Village is designed as a central strand of SIFA’s three-year arc, bringing together indoor and outdoor performances, interactive installations, parades, and participatory experiences that extend from late night into the early morning. It will feature works such as: 

● Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming 《记忆游泳池》by The Theatre Practice - transforming the Village into a communal music and movement space rooted in intergenerational exchange. 

● RUPTURE by The Observatory - a dawn sound installation drawing on seismic research, volcanic activity, and mythology. 

● Makan Culture at the Festival Market - an interactive celebration of Singapore’s beloved dishes through puppetry, music, and theatre. 

Extending its immersive offerings, SIFA 2026 presents AUTOMATA, a late-night series curated by Hothouse (Singapore) as part of Festival Late Nites bringing filmmakers, programmers, movement artists, musicians, and machinists to explore ritual, repetition, and mechanical bodies through film, movement, and sound. 

2. Diversity Futures: A Transnational Think Tank 

SIFA 2026 also launches Diversity Futures: A Transnational Creative Think Tank, a three-year initiative connecting emerging artists from The National Theater Company of Korea’s young directors programme, and Hong Kong Arts Festival’s No Limits platform, with their peers and counterparts from Singapore.  Through residencies, labs, and collaborative experiments, Diversity Futures seeks to reimagine inclusive and sustainable creative practice across Asian contexts. 

3. A Festival for All 

Building on the positive public response to last year’s SIFA Pavilion at Bedok Town Square, SIFA’s Festival Play!Ground at Nexus, Punggol Digital District extends SIFA’s commitment to community outreach by bringing large-scale and high-impact artistic experiences into the heartlands. Conceived as a platform for public engagement and shared encounters, this activation invites residents and visitors alike to experience festival works beyond traditional performance venues.

Driving this outreach is Noli Timere (United States/Canada), a soaring aerial performance that unfolds across the Festival Village before arriving at Nexus, Punggol Digital District. The result of a five-year collaboration between Guggenheim Fellowship recipients Rebecca Lazier and Janet Echelman, the work features a specially designed, voluminous net sculpture animated by eight multidisciplinary performers.

Comprising contemporary dance and avant-garde circus with public sculpture, social practice, and advanced engineering, Noli Timere marks its Asia premiere and transforms the urban landscape into a shared site of wonder. Choreographed to an original score by Quebecois composer JORANE, the performance presents aerial artists suspended up to 25 feet in the air, moving upon and within the sculptural form.

Its presentation at Nexus underscores SIFA’s vision of Festival Play!Ground as a space where art meets community, expanding access and reimagining how performing arts can enliven everyday spaces. “NAC commissioned SIFA to be a festival that showcases our nation’s cultural identity and strengthens our connection with each other. SIFA’s line-up this year aims to transform our city into a living stage that makes the arts accessible while showcasing the creativity of our artists. Audiences have a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the local and international performances put together by SIFA,” adds Mrs. Elaine Ng, CEO of NAC. 

4. From Singapore to the World: A Stage Without Borders 

SIFA 2026 brings together powerful artistic voices from Singapore and around the world, reflecting both innovation and heritage while nurturing cross-border collaboration. 

● Lush Life (Singapore): Two of Singapore’s most distinctive and contrasting musical voices come together in a bold new collaboration, pairing the audiophile-grade jazz stylings of Jacintha Abisheganaden with the bohemian pop sensibility of Dick Lee. Directed by internationally acclaimed Singaporean director Ong Keng Sen, Lush Life unfolds as an intimate documentary performance, weaving together their lives, artistry, and enduring connections in a layered portrait of music, memory, and identity. 

● Salesman之死 (Singapore): Written by Jeremy Tiang and directed by Danny Yeo, this play centers on Arthur Miller’s 1983 visit to Beijing to direct the first Chinese production of Death of a Salesman, a landmark staging that was brought to Singapore in 1986 by pioneer of Singapore theatre Kuo Pao Kun. Marking 40 years since that Singapore presentation in the Victoria Theatre, the new iteration, Salesman之死 unfolds as a multilingual tale of cultural confusion, impossible translation, and unexpected encounters amid the chaos of theatre making. 

● YOU ARE (NOT) WHAT YOU EAT! (Singapore) by Yang Derong - a kaleidoscopic installation reflecting on Singapore’s food culture and plastic consumption.

● Strangely Familiar《熟悉的陌生》(Singapore): A transcultural dance production by T.H.E Dance Company, co-created in collaboration with artists and designers from the region, combines live performers and digital embodiments to explore how culture, digital identities, and everyday norms intertwine in contemporary lives. 

● LACRIMA (France): French director, author, and filmmaker Caroline Guiela Nguyen’s epic drama explores the human and social worlds behind a fictional Parisian haute couture commission for a royal wedding. Moving between workshops, families, and continents, the work brings together professional actors and non-professional performers to examine labour, secrecy, and the emotional weight carried by those whose hands create objects of desire. 

● Hedda Gabler (South Korea): A contemporary reimagining of Ibsen’s classic, starring one of the most prominent South Korean actresses in the 1980s Lee Hye-young as the iconic heroine, exploring desire, frustration, and societal constraints with striking theatrical precision. 

● Hamlet (Peru): A group of people with Down syndrome take the stage to share their desires and frustrations through a reimagining of Hamlet. The play is built between Shakespeare’s text and the actors' lives, and it takes as its starting point the question he asks us about existence. To be or not to be? What does it mean to be for people who can’t find spaces where they are not considered? 

● Tempo (Sweden/Brazil): An exploration of time’s elasticity through text, movement, and stage illusions, turning ordinary moments into extraordinary experiences where gravity, speed, and perception dissolve. 

● Planet [wanderer] (France/Japan): Materialised as an intriguing result of a collaboration between choreographer Damien Jalet and scenographer Kohei Nawa, where they confront the bodies of the eight dancers with the materials and textures of the scenography to create a story of the visceral bond between people and planet. 

“By bringing in world-class performances directly into our communities, SIFA’s diverse programming enriches Singapore’s vibrancy while strengthening our position as a premier cultural hub. The Festival offers visitors an authentic taste of our cosmopolitan identity and reinforces Singapore’s appeal as a must-visit destination,” said Ms. Guo Teyi, Director, Leisure Events, Singapore Tourism Board. 

Tickets and Early Bird Promotion 

SIFA 2026 runs from 15 to 30 May 2026. Early bird tickets (20% savings) are available from 12 March, 4pm via sifa.sg. Selected programmes are eligible for the SG Culture Pass. 

Website: www.sifa.sg