Singapore Botanic Gardens and Fort Canning Park are running a nine-day Heritage Festival from 5 to 13 September 2026, and it lands exactly on the September school holidays. More than 50 programmes, and the great majority of them cost nothing.
> Quick view: 5 to 13 September 2026 · Singapore Botanic Gardens + Fort Canning Park · free admission, most programmes free · a free shuttle bus links the two parks on weekends, 9am to 10pm · full official e-programme at go.gov.sg/sbgfcp-heritagefestival-programme
The one thing to get right: the weekend rule
Read the official festival schedule closely and a pattern jumps out. The workshops, the guided tours, the concerts and the outdoor movies are almost all on four dates only: Saturday 5, Sunday 6, Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September. The single weekday exception in the programme is a forest-bathing session at Fort Canning on Wednesday 9 September.
So if you are planning around the school break, the midweek days are quieter by design. What still runs every day from 5 to 13 September:
- Heritage Rally, 9am to 5.30pm daily, across both parks
- Exhibitions at both parks, including the new fungi gallery
- Fungi After Dark, 7.30pm to 10pm, CDL Green Gallery Lawn
- Craft Booths at The Spice Atelier, Fort Canning Centre, 10am to 10pm (they close at 6pm on weekdays)
- Tenant promotions at the cafes and shops in both parks
Heritage Rally: stamps, a pin and a tote bag
This is the easiest thing to do with children, and it needs no booking. Pick up a Heritage Rally passport and walk either park, collecting stamps at each stop.
- 8 stamps at Singapore Botanic Gardens gets you a special edition Gardens pin
- 6 stamps at Fort Canning Park gets you an exclusive tote bag marking Fort Canning Centre's 100th anniversary
- Finish both routes and there is a further special prize
NParks calls it a drop-in activity with no registration needed, and says passports and prize redemption are while stocks last. On weekends the route is staffed with live encounters (a make-and-taste session with plants and spices, a field recording walk, an entomologist showing you insects, a macro photography walk). On weekdays you follow the same route through discovery panels instead.
Free outdoor movies at Eco-Lake Lawn
Four screenings, 7.30pm to 9pm, all at the Eco-Lake Lawn in the Botanic Gardens:
| Date | Film |
|---|---|
| Sat 5 Sep | A Singapore Dementia Story (2026) |
| Sun 6 Sep | Fantastic Fungi (2019) |
| Sat 12 Sep | Lilo & Stitch (2025) |
| Sun 13 Sep | Mulan (1998) |
One practical catch worth knowing before you pack: these are solar-powered screenings with no external speakers at all. You listen through the Cinewav app on your own phone, so bring a charged phone and your own headphones for every person in your group. Download the app before you leave home rather than fighting park wifi on the lawn.
The 5 September screening also opens with a short dementia awareness talk from Dementia Singapore, ahead of World Alzheimer's Month.
Free concerts at the Symphony Stage
All three at the Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage, the usual bring-a-mat picnic spot:
- Sat 5 Sep, 6pm to 7pm: The Garden Sessions with The Purple Symphony, Singapore's largest inclusive orchestra
- Sat 12 Sep, 5.30pm to 7pm: Xinyao Lives On, with Li Fei Hui, Deng Shu Xian, Hong Shao Xuan, Pan Ying, Xu Guangli and Cai Xinyi, hosted by FM 958's Lin Zhi
- Sun 13 Sep, 6pm to 7pm: Open Score Project
After dark: fungi, a night tour and a 14th-century quest
Fungi After Dark runs every night of the festival, 7.30pm to 10pm on the CDL Green Gallery Lawn. It is a light-and-projection walk that makes the fungal network under the paths visible. Drop in, no registration.
The related Funtastical World of Fungi exhibition sits in the CDL Green Gallery and, for these nine days only, stays open to 10pm instead of the usual 6pm. The SBG Heritage Museum also extends to 10pm from 5 to 13 September. Both are free.
Over at Fort Canning, The Heir is an immersive projection and audio quest on 5, 6, 12 and 13 September, 7.30pm to 10pm, starting at the entrance to the Spice Gallery on Canning Rise. You play a young prince on Bukit Larangan in 14th-century Temasek, across five projection stops with one puzzle at each (a letter lock, an arrow sequence, a word unscramble, a four-digit code). Audio runs through a web app on your own phone. It is drop-in, and NParks says you walk away with a secret gift at the end.
The SBG Night Tour runs 8pm to 9pm on all four weekend dates from the Visitor Services Counter at Tanglin Gate. This one needs registration.
The two new exhibitions
The Straits Times reported on 4 September that this year's new galleries include the Botanic Gardens' Funtastical World of Fungi, which displays live glowing fungi, and Fort Canning's Hidden World: Creepy Crawlies of Singapore, showing more than 120 species of Singapore insects, including a bug species newly found at both festival venues. A third new display marks 100 years of Fort Canning Centre.
The Botanic Gardens' standing free exhibitions are open through the festival too: Roots of Knowledge (150 years of the SBG Library), Pressing Plant Matters (150 years of the Singapore Herbarium), In Green by Asuka Hishiki, Tropical Treats and Sweets on the plants in Singapore's desserts, the Seed Bank Interpretive Gallery, and Trees Create Forests at the Forest Discovery Centre.
Workshops that need booking
These fill up, and NParks says onsite slots are limited and first come, first served. Register through the links in the official e-programme.
| Date | Workshop | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Sat 5 Sep | Mushroom Buddies Workshop, Ridley Hall, 10am to 12pm | Ages 13 and above; harvest and take home your own mushrooms |
| Sat 5 Sep | In a Day's Work: Orchid Specialist, 10am to 12pm | Adults only |
| Sat 5 Sep | Crafting Botanical Soap and Spice Garden Tour, Fort Canning | Two sessions, 10am and 2.30pm; ages 10+ |
| Sun 6 Sep | In a Day's Work: Plant Cultivator, 10am to 12pm | Ages 10+ |
| Sun 6 Sep | Clay, Kings & Kilns ceramic-making, Fort Canning Centre | Two sessions; finished pieces ready about five weeks later, self-collection at Jalan Bahar |
| Wed 9 & Sat 12 Sep | Roots & Reflection forest bathing, 8.30am to 11.30am | Ages 16+; bring your own mat |
| Sat 12 Sep | In a Day's Work: Heritage Core Horticulturist, 10am to 12pm | Ages 10+ |
| Sun 13 Sep | In a Day's Work: Arborist, Bukit Timah Gate, 10am to 12pm | Ages 10+; live tree-climbing demo |
| Sun 13 Sep | Tessellations in Culture relief-printing, Fort Canning | Two sessions; ages 10+ |
| Sun 13 Sep | Wander & Brew: Tropical Sips from the Spice Garden | Two sessions; ages 8+ |
All the volunteer-led guided tours are free, run about an hour, and need registration. No pets on the tours.
What actually costs money
Entry to Singapore Botanic Gardens and Fort Canning Park is free, and so is nearly every festival programme. Two things are not:
National Orchid Garden. It remains the only ticketed part of the Gardens. Off NParks' own rate card, locals (citizens, PRs and pass holders living here) pay $5 for adults, $1 for seniors 60 and above, $1 for students, and children under 12 are free. The standard rate is $15 for adults and $3 for seniors and students. It opens 8.30am to 7pm, with last ticket sales and entry at 6pm. There is a free guided tour of the Orchid Garden on 12 September, but the admission ticket still applies.
Food and retail. The park tenants are running festival promotions, most of them valid 5 to 13 September unless stated otherwise:
- Fusion Spoon at Botanic Gardens (1 to 30 Sep): Peranakan Chicken Chop $13.90 nett, Heritage Afternoon Tea $22.90 nett (kaya toast finger, 2 mini curry puffs, 3 chicken satay sticks, 2 homemade ondeh ondeh, a blueberry cheesecake and a pot of tea), plus 10% off chendol and ice kachang
- Tiong Bahru Bakery, Fort Canning: $12++ for one viennoiserie and one iced drink, dine-in only
- il Giardino: 10% off all a la carte items, dine-in only, not valid on public holidays or their eves
- Canning Bar & Lounge at METT Singapore (1 to 30 Sep): 10% off all a la carte plus two heritage cocktails, 1822 with nutmeg and Tea House with cardamom. Dine-in only, present the "100 Years of Stories" offer page
- Wildseed Cafe at The Garage: Heritage Picnic Baskets for 2 pax at $80 and $150
- The Bloomhouse by Little Farms: Peranakan chef Grace Kee takes over the kitchen on 10 and 11 September only, from 5pm, at $108++ per person. Seats are limited and reservations are strongly advised
- Gardens Shops: 50% off the Singapore Garden Festival Exclusive Baseball Cap (U.P. $29.90) from 1 to 30 Sep, and 10% off A Guide to Macrofungi in Singapore from 5 to 13 Sep
Getting between the two parks
There is a free shuttle bus between Singapore Botanic Gardens and Fort Canning Park on weekends only, 9am to 10pm, roughly every 15 to 20 minutes, with the last bus leaving the first stop at 9.40pm. On weekdays you are back on the MRT: Botanic Gardens on the Circle and Downtown lines, Fort Canning on the Downtown line.
One caveat before you go
This is an outdoor festival, and Singapore's air quality has been in the unhealthy band this week. NEA forecast the 5 September 24-hour PSI at high-moderate to mid-unhealthy after readings above 100 in the central, eastern and western regions. The evening programmes are the ones most exposed. Check the haze situation on the NEA website or myENV app on the day before committing to a long outdoor session, especially with young children, seniors or anyone with heart or lung conditions.
Related
- September School Holidays 2026: Things to Do With Kids in Singapore the rest of the 5 to 13 September break
- Best Places for Kids in Singapore This School Holiday what is open and what is shut
- Singapore Haze: PSI in the Unhealthy Range how to read the bands before an outdoor day
*Details taken from NParks' official Singapore Botanic Gardens and Fort Canning Park Heritage Festival 2026 e-programme and the Singapore Botanic Gardens website, checked 5 September 2026. Programmes, timings and registration slots are set by NParks and can change, so confirm on the official e-programme before you travel. "++" denotes service charge and GST. Photo: NParks / Singapore Botanic Gardens official.*
