Singapore Night Festival 2026 Guide (21 Aug – 5 Sep): 9 Must-See Highlights, What's Free and What Costs $60

The festival's signature projection-mapping work, thrown across the full neoclassical facade of the National Museum of Singapore. Bandung-based multimedia team The Fox, The Folks reinterpret Southeast Asian folklore as a running dialogue between land and water — treating legends not as fixed past events but as living things carried by waves and grounded in earth. The soundtrack is original, produced by Singapore music collective Artusik in collaboration with UiTM Malaysia. Catch it from 8pm on Friday 21 August as part of the Festival Launch, when the Birdmen appear alongside it. Free, no registration, and it runs every night of the festival. Address: 93 Stamford Road; nearest MRT Bras Basah or Bencoolen.

The festival's first-ever projection-mapping competition for emerging Southeast Asian artists and students, and the reason to walk down to Cathay Green. Close to 50 entries came in; the Top 20 artworks are projected onto the historic facade of The Cathay from 21 to 28 August, then the Top 5 take over from 29 August to 5 September. That split matters if you are planning one visit only — go in week one for variety, week two if you want the winners on a loop. Supported by Official Technology Partner Epson. Free, no registration. Address: 2 Handy Road; nearest MRT Dhoby Ghaut.

The only big ticketed programme, and the one that sells out first. Before Fort Canning, before Government Hill, this was Bukit Larangan — the Forbidden Hill, which early Malay settlers refused to climb, believing it the burial ground of ancient kings. When Raffles wanted to climb it in 1819, the Temenggong's men warned him of hundreds of voices, heavy drums and ghostly shouts heard daily. He climbed anyway; the local Malay population never followed. Sight Lines Productions and The Urbanist Singapore turn that into a 70-minute nocturnal trail across six stations in Fort Canning Park, with immersive soundscapes and live traditional Malay dance — you walk it as a participant, not a spectator. $60 a ticket, eight nights only: 21–22 August, 27–29 August and 3–5 September. Thursday sessions at 8pm; Friday and Saturday at 7.30pm and 9.30pm. Registration required via Klook. Wheelchair-friendly. Nearest MRT Dhoby Ghaut or Fort Canning.

If you only make one trip, make it the opening weekend, because this is the one thing you cannot catch later. Close-Act Theatre from the Netherlands — a company that builds spectacular outdoor theatre where interaction with the crowd is the whole point — brings its luminous Birdmen to the streets of Bras Basah.Bugis for their Southeast Asian debut. Think towering stilt-walking bird puppets lit from within, roving through the precinct with live music, stopping for anyone who gets close enough. Three nights only: 21, 22 and 23 August, with performances at 7.45pm and 9.15pm. They also appear alongside the Tales of Earth and Sea launch at 8pm on 21 August. Free, roving, no registration — get there early and pick a spot along the trail.

The cheapest ticket of the festival and the best one for a rainy night. The Asian Film Archive, with the National Library Board and Heritage SG, traces Southeast Asian horror from the 1950s to now inside the historic Oldham Theatre at the National Archives of Singapore. Three screenings, three nights: Orang Minyak (1958) on Saturday 22 August at 7.30pm — the 'oily man' terrorising a village, digitally restored by the AFA in 2018 from a 16mm black-and-white print in its own collection; Tiger Stripes (2023) on Sunday 23 August at 7.30pm — a Malaysian teenager's body turning against her after her classmates find out she has started menstruating; and Roh (2019) on Saturday 29 August at 8.30pm — a strange girl, a vulnerable mother, and a forest that comes alive. $10 per ticket, registration required via Klook. Address: 1 Canning Rise.

The best free installation for anyone who likes walking into an artwork rather than looking at one. Scaffolding structures rise above Bugis Street Art Lane and billow into illuminated cloud forms carved by moving shadows — the monsoon squalls braved by the Bugis seafarers who sailed these waters in the early 1800s, and whose stories were whispered across the archipelago for generations. Glowing lighthouses stand in as refuge points along the way. Built by Melting Po(r)t Collective — Matlr Creative, StrawberryWasabi and LiteWerkz — in collaboration with Official Partner Bugis Street. Free, no registration, nightly for the full 16 nights. Nearest MRT Bugis, which also makes it the easiest stop to start or end your walk on.

The most photogenic stop of the lot, and the easiest to fit in if you are coming from Orchard. A 2.8-metre-tall interactive Fortune Merlion by Singapore sustainable art-toy brand UNIPLAY, with animated movement in both its arm and its head — a mash-up of the Merlion and the fortune cat. Half of the fibreglass composite it is made from is recycled PET bottle flakes, replacing a chunk of virgin resin: a deliberate nod to the original monument standing at the mouth of what used to be a badly polluted Singapore River. UNIPLAY was founded by Joe Chua, whose 'Trash to Treasure' campaign turns discarded PET bottles into 3D-printed collectibles. Presented with Supporting Partner Plaza Singapura. Free, nightly. Address: 68 Orchard Road; nearest MRT Dhoby Ghaut.

Useful if you arrive early and the 7.30pm start is still an hour away, because this is the rare piece that is designed to work in daylight as well. Singapore visual artist Ching Kai — 20 years across paper art, installation, scenography, photography and moving image — builds a walk-through structure inspired by traditional street performance and communal myth-making. By day it reads as a tapestry of shifting colours and reflective surfaces that changes with the sunlight and with whoever is moving through it. After dark it switches to animated shadow projections, live music and silhouettes, and you can play with the projections to write your own movement into the story. Presented with Supporting Partner Raffles City Singapore. Free, no registration. Address: 252 North Bridge Road; nearest MRT City Hall.

The festival's official F&B tie-in, and the one most worth the detour if you want to sit down properly rather than queue at a village stall. The cocktail lounge at Fairmont Singapore runs a limited-time Night Festival menu for the full 21 August to 5 September window, reworking local street food with a fine-dining hand: grilled chicken wings with lemon balm and garlic chilli, beef short rib skewers glazed in a bak kut teh reduction, and salted egg yolk lava shrimp croquettes finished with caviar and curry leaf. Open 12nn to 12.15am, so it covers both a pre-walk dinner and a post-walk nightcap. Two things to know before you book: reservations must be confirmed with a credit card, and cancellations inside 48 hours (or no-shows) are charged at $40++ per person. ALL Plus Explorer and AMEX Love Dining discounts do not apply to this menu. Address: 80 Bras Basah Road; nearest MRT City Hall or Esplanade.