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This May, the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) is flipping the script with SIFA 2026 – Let’s Play!, turning stages, parks, riversides, and city streets into playgrounds for anyone curious enough to dive in.
This year, SIFA’s lineup is built around five pillars. Festival Stage serves up show-stopping productions featuring both local and international talent. Festival Village pops up at Empress Lawn and Anderson Bridge, turning the area into a free playground of interactive installations, outdoor shows, and playful energy that’s a wink to the 90s and 2000s. Festival Play!Ground is where you can get your hands dirty – think collaborative building projects, art experiments, and anything that gets you creating on the spot. Festival House dives deeper with workshops, talks, and immersive performances, and Festival Late Nites keeps the party going after dark.
If you’re short on time, here are some highlights we think you shouldn’t miss. First up, Just Keep Swimming – fun music-and-movement hubs scattered across the festival village where you can groove and get lost in the choreography. Then there’s Rupture, a dawn sound installation inspired by volcanoes and mythology, perfect if you’re an early riser and want to experience some immersive audio as the sun comes up. Makan Culture will be an absolute treat for your senses, mixing theatre, storytelling, and the flavours and smells of Singaporean food into one lively performance. And lastly, Noli Timere, a jaw-dropping five-year collaboration where aerialists perform on a massive net at Nexus in Punggol – sure to have you staring skyward without blinking.
Beyond local talent, the festival will also be bringing in international voices from France, South Korea, Peru, Sweden, Brazil, and Japan, with productions ranging from transcultural dance and experimental theatre to reimaginings of classics like Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
This year, Festival Director Chong Tze Chien will also be kicking off a three-year vision titled Legacy, shining a spotlight on the artists, performances, and stories that helped shape Singapore’s creative DNA. In 2027, the festival will explore Roots, a year all about reconnecting with the pioneers and sparking conversations across generations. By 2028, the focus will shift to Renaissance, celebrating up-and-coming artists with works mixing old traditions with new perspectives.
SIFA runs from May 15 to 30, 2026. Early bird tickets are already on sale via Sifa’s webpage. Selected programmes also qualify for the SG Culture Pass, so be sure to look out for them.
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