Immerse yourself in ISLAND NIGHTS at Singapore Night Festival 2025, with new highlight experiences, light installations, and more!
Singapore Night Festival 2025: Island Nights
From 22 August to 6 September 2025, HeritageSG presents Singapore Night Festival 2025, bringing captivating installations and programmes to the Bras Basah.Bugis precinct. This year’s theme, Island Nights, is a celebration of Singapore’s rich island narratives. At Singapore’s largest nocturnal experience, you can enjoy a mix of dazzling light installations, immersive performances and programmes that express the multifaceted life by the sea.
In this photo tour, get your first look at some of the event highlights captured at the Night Festival Media Preview:
Highlight Experience: Sky Castle
Gigantic inflatable arches emerge from Cathay Green, creating a vibrant wonderland. Sky Castle (ENESS Studio) is an interactive sound and light installation where you can create your own colourful and melodic experience with other visitors.
Simply walking around, or even gently pressing on the inflatables, changes the colour of the arches, along with the melody it creates.
It’ll cost you S$5 to enter Sky Castle and immerse yourself in this very Instagrammable installation. Get your tickets to Sky Castle from Klook, the official ticketing partner. Once you’re inside, there’s no time limit to your stay.
Highlight Experience: Kampong Chill
Kampong Chill (Yok & Sheryo) has landed at Capitol Singapore. Within this idyllic pavilion is an environment “optimised for relaxation”.
Here, you can break down “busy-ness” into laziness, as you settle into “island time”.
Have a seat and embrace the slowness, letting time idle by as you squander it all away.
Visit the Heatstroke Hotel booth outside to pick up some exclusive merch by the artists.
Projection Mapping Artworks at SG Night Fest 2025
At SG Night Fest 2025, the largest projection show is back at the National Museum of Singapore. Here you can enjoy MOSAIC (Jérémie Bellot, Ena Eno and Josselin Fouché), which brings you on a captivating journey through time and space.
It’s a truly mesmerizing spectacle, and probably my favourite part of the Night Festival this year.
Distinctive design elements from local culture, from textile prints to Peranakan architecture, are woven into the visual tapestry.
MOSAIC is about 5 minutes long, with a 10-minute interval between each show.
Over at CHIJMES, you can discover a few rotating projection mapping artworks on display, as part of the Night Festival’s Projection Mapping Masterclass programme. It will take about 5 minutes to watch through all four works here.
Awakening (Tororo.ai) reflects on Singapore’s history as an island and a major port, with the artwork bringing you on a metaphorical journey into a shipwreck, exploring how the sea has shaped the nation.
Island Waters (Lim KangLi) celebrates marine life and fauna around our island. A simple ripple on the surface brings you into the depths of the ocean, as Peranakan porcelain motifs showcase the vital role of water in our lives.
Roadside beauties and healing remedies (Adeline Kueh) highlights the healing power of traditional tea remedies using roadside herbs and wildflowers. It’s a fun and playful way to learn how simple things have helped us cope with the tropical heat, while reminding us to appreciate the valuable knowledge passed down through generations.
Dari Pulau ke Pulau (From One Island to Another) (HAFI) tells a personal story of migration through the artist’s own family history. It traces the journeys of their grandparents who traveled from Melaka and East Java to settle in Singapore, using animated illustrations to bring these emotional and physical journeys to life.
Night Lights – Art Installations around the precinct
These installations by local and regional artists illuminate the streets at Singapore Night Festival 2025. You can discover Night Lights at Armenian Street, Bugis+, Funan, the National Design Centre, Plaza Singapura, and Raffles City Singapore.
Floating in the open space outside Plaza Singapura, CYBERSWORDFISH V2.0: From Myth to Megabytes (Yang Derong) is a gigantic swordfish sculpture with distinctive cyberpunk aesthetics.
Constructed out of e-waste that he discovered, the work reflects on the rise of AI and accelerated consumption, leading to relentless production of waste. Now, these forces have taken form into invasive swordfishes, a twist on the folktale on the creation of Singapore’s Redhill.
Skygazers: Dreaming into the Past and Future (Space Objekt x Reza Hasni) is an interactive installation you can walk around. Inspired by archival photograph of four nyonyas, the structure resembles a face looking skyward, adorned with Peranakan motifs.
It’ll definitely a beautiful spot for photos, especially with the Peranakan Museum at the back. This whole area will be bustling and colourful, as it forms the PARADISE ISLAND at Armenian Street Festival Village. You can enjoy free entry to the Museum during the night festival event period, from 7PM to 11PM.
Jiaw Laut (Aw Boon Xin and Koh Kai Ting) features luminous crab sculptures that light a path, connecting us to the enduring waves at our shores and our marine past. Find them at Armenian street’s lawn.
Find the dreaming boy, KU a Dreamer (Tùng Monkey), at Funan Mall. Take pause, while the crowd rushes around you, and press the button to activate a colourful surprise as you go against the flow.
Walk around and inside Two Sides of Our Island (LABSIXFIVE) at Raffles City, a work that showcases nostalgic elements of Singapore in novel ways, including optical illusions and intricate illustrations.
There’s even a photo box, complete with mirrors.
UTOPIA (Jahan Low) imagines life in SG600. Set within a room in the side of the National Design Centre (not the usual Atrium space), you can take a break as you watch these spacemen enjoying a tea ceremony of the future. Glad to see that food is still a thing – even though it has completely evolved.
At the side, you can see accompanying 3D sculptures of the spacemen.
At Bugis+, the Waves of Time: Splash On Our Skyline (Maegzter) is a retro-futuristic installation comprising neon lights. On one side, you can take fun photos and become a “mermaid” (or man).
The other piece of the installation is a response to the-then Public Works Department (PWD)’s statement that “neon signs are a blight on the skyline”. That was way back in 1993, over 3 decades ago.
Partner Programmes at Singapore Night Festival 2025
There will be three festival villages this year: Singapore Management University (SMU)’s Campus Green will also have its SMU Arts Fest: 2560 during Singapore Night Festival 2025, along with Paradise Island at Armenian Street, with vibrant programmes around the Peranakan Museum (and if you walk further, the Children’s Museum). Over at Bugis Street Art Lane, the third village, Retro District will transport you into nostalgia with whimsical stations and old-school shops bringing you back to the good old days.
During the Media Preview, I got to visit The Listening Biennial at Arts Resource Hub (42 Waterloo Street) to discover some of its unique programmes.
As the name suggests, The Listening Biennial is centered around listening, offering a platform for programmes and creative works dedicated to exploring and activating the potential of listening.
Becoming Coral (Superlative Futures) brings a unique “ghost island” to the festival, made from discarded architectural models of buildings that were never built. The island, which resembles a miniature city resting on an elevated ring, will gradually grow throughout the festival.
Weathering the Blue House (Superlative Futures) is also presented together with this work. You will hear sounds of water around Singapore in various forms, creating a soundscape that highlights the connection between the city and the sea. Think of it as water ASMR as you walk around the ring and touch the “coral”
My tiny space (Rachel Chen and ART:DIS) is an interactive space developed with the help of the non-speaking autistic community and featuring music by local artists Wheelsmith and Sky Shen. Here, you can connect with another person through a fun music activity. Place your hand on the music mats on the table, and touch another person’s hand to create a unique soundscape.
Silent Studio (Isabelle Lim) invites you into a quiet world where communication happens without words. Set up like a photo studio, it’s a unique opportunity to interact with a Deaf photographer, Isabelle Lim (Issy), and have your portrait taken. You can even volunteer to be Issy’s photo assistant.
The experience encourages you to “listen with your eyes” and see the world in a new way, while also showing how a genuine connection can be formed through simple gestures and shared presence.
The Listening Biennial, Third Edition at Singapore Night Festival 2025
For the full list of programmes at The Listening Biennial, please refer to this website. Though most programmes are free, bookings are required for some experiences though EventBrite to secure your slots.
Singapore Night Festival 2025: Island Nights
22 August to 6 September 2025
All around Bras Basah.Bugis precinct
Hours vary at various venues, but generally most art installations are available from:
7:30PM – 12:00AM on Fridays and Saturdays
7:30PM – 11:00PM on Sundays to Thursdays
Most programmes are free to experience, but some activities may require registration, and may require a fee.
For more information, visit the official Singapore Night Festival 2025 website.
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