Singapore Night Festival returns to Bras Basah.Bugis from 21 August to 5 September 2026, and this year the precinct belongs to Myths and Legends.
Singapore Night Festival 2026: Myths and Legends
What is the theme of Singapore Night Festival 2026?
Singapore Night Festival 2026 runs from 21 August to 5 September 2026 across the Bras Basah.Bugis precinct, with the theme Myths and Legends. Presented by HeritageSG, the 17th edition draws on the folklore and stories that have shaped Singapore and the wider Southeast Asian region, told through facade projections, light installations and live performance. The best part is most of them are free to view.
This year, the festival hub sits around the National Museum of Singapore and the Children’s Museum Singapore, with artworks spreading out across Armenian Street, SMU Campus Green, CHIJMES, Bugis Street and the malls along the edge of the precinct. Three weekends, sixteen nights.
What is new at SG Night Fest 2026?
The headline addition is MALAM, the festival’s first projection mapping competition, which drew close to 50 submissions from artists and collectives across Southeast Asia and turns The Cathay into a rotating showcase of the shortlisted works.
The largest single work is Tales of Earth and Sea, a facade projection on the National Museum of Singapore. Anchoring the opening weekend alongside this massive work is the Southeast Asian debut of the Birdmen stilt walkers.
SGNightFest 2026 also marks the first time that CHIJMES hall interior is used for a large-scale, 360-degree indoor projection mapping experience, Between Stories.
MALAM Projection Mapping Competition (The Cathay)
The Cathay’s facade was already busy with colour by the time I got there, cycling through entries from the inaugural MALAM Projection Mapping Competition, credited to Various Artists. I only caught two or three before the Birdmen arrived and pulled the whole crowd’s attention away.
The projections were vibrant and full of contrast, some leaning nostalgic, others closer to something out of a sci-fi concept reel. One entry stood out clearly as it showed older Chinese and Peranakan motifs, and the visuals unfolded across the facade like paper coming to life. It managed to feel both old and new at once.
It was also stunning to see entries using the actual shape of the building, particularly The Cathay’s blade sign, rather than treating the facade as a flat screen. The top 20 entries run through the opening stretch of the festival, with the top 5 remaining on the facade through to the close.
Birdmen (Roving act)
Birdmen by Close-Act Theatre is a roving act around the festival grounds, starting from the National Museum of Singapore and running twice a night at 7:45pm and 9:15pm, only across the opening weekend of 21 to 23 August. I caught them marching into the open area in front of The Cathay, circling the crowd before closing into a ring and lunging down toward the people packed around them.
Close up, the towering stilt creatures read somewhere between dinosaur and something further out. Their glowing bodies shift colour as they move, giving the whole thing a sci-fi edge that would not feel out of place in a time-travel story.
It is a short spectacle, and an intense one while it lasts. Expect a swarm of phones and cameras the moment the ring forms. Watching from a distance works just as well.
Tales of Earth and Sea (National Museum of Singapore)
Tales of Earth and Sea by The Fox, The Folks is the standout work of the festival. The art style is vibrant without looking too cartoonish, and it is dense with recognisable myths and legends layered across the facade, a swordfish invasion, Sang Nila Utama, the Lion of Temasek, even the Merlion makes an appearance alongside dragons and other mythical creatures woven through the visuals.
Water runs through almost everything on screen, a fitting nod to Singapore’s history as a port city and how much of its folklore is tied to the sea.
This is what I call a “grand projection” which uses the entire front facade of the museum, wings included, so there is no real bad spot to watch from.
Three works at SMU Campus Green
SMU Campus Green pulls together a small cluster of quieter, more contemplative works, a good pace change after the crowd and spectacle of the Museum precinct.
You and I, Believing…
You and I, Believing… by the Yellow Ribbon Community Arts Festival Committee 2026 centres on a sculpture shaped like a head, built from mirrored slices that show its form as if sliced through vertically, layer by layer. The other half on the other side carries photographs of a supportive community. Visitors can pick up a yellow ribbon and tie it onto one of the sculpture’s metal petals, a small participatory touch that helps the work slowly “bloom” over the course of the festival.
Traces
Traces by Isaiah Cacnio rewards sitting down. Find a spot on the steps and let the piece work on you as glyphs and abstract forms flow upward, like a waterfall running in reverse, drifting off the installation and onto the trees nearby. Soft colours and slow, abstract motion carry the whole thing, and it is genuinely mesmerising to sit through rather than glance at in passing.
The Dragon’s Tooth: A Legend of Becoming Light
The Dragon’s Tooth was still being installed at SMU when I passed through. Starlight Alchemy’s piece is designed to reimagine monuments as sites of remembrance, with participatory elements built in. Worth a look once it is fully up and running.
Vikings of the Tropics (Armenian Street)
Vikings of the Tropics by TELL YOUR CHILDREN takes the shape of a simplified, almost papercut-style Viking ship set on the green along Armenian Street, flanked by neon-outlined sea creatures that light up the walkway leading in.
The nice detail is in the hull, the ship’s body is decorated in bold, geometric motifs that read distinctly Peranakan, a tile-inspired twist that also nods to the Peranakan Museum just around the corner.
The Great Mythical Stampede (Peranakan Museum)
The Great Mythical Stampede by CHUNKIE Filmhouse is a striking contrast piece. The Peranakan Museum’s facade is kept unadorned (unlike 2025’s rainbow hues and 2024’s trippy vibes), true to its original heritage architecture, which makes the installation in front of it hit even harder.
The artists gave Peranakan motifs and aesthetics a modern edge, rendering them in vibrant neon outlines that break entirely from the conventional, elegant style the building represents. There is even a winged horse paired with a phoenix, mythical creatures reimagined in a form that feels closer to a rave than a heritage gallery.
Get close to the curved surfaces of the sculptures and look at how the neon reflects and warps, a bit like stepping into a funhouse mirror room.
The Lost Legacy of Fort Canning: The Forbidden Hill
For something further afield, (brave) visitors can also enjoy a ticketed night trail through Fort Canning Park nearby. The Lost Legacy of Fort Canning: The Forbidden Hill by Sight Lines Co. and The Urbanist Singapore is a guided walk through the myths of Bukit Larangan, with atmospheric soundscapes and live traditional Malay dance. Tickets are $60. Book The Lost Legacy of Fort Canning on Klook.
Horror Nights @ Oldham Theatre
Also nearby, the Asian Film Archive presents a short run of classic Southeast Asian horror cinema at the Oldham Theatre inside the National Archives of Singapore, screening Orang Minyak, Tiger Stripes and Roh on 22, 23, 29 and 30 August. Tickets are $10. Book Horror Nights @ Oldham Theatre on Klook.
Textures Through Time (CHIJMES)
Textures Through Time by Race Krehel projects across the CHIJMES Hall facade, moving through different eras of material and print, from early textiles through to the screen age. It is a straightforward piece, and if I am honest, projection mapping at CHIJMES rarely lands the way it does elsewhere, the space is already busy with nightlife and dining, and that energy tends to dominate over anything happening on the walls.
Between Stories
Inside CHIJMES Hall, Between Stories by Clare Chong is a different experience altogether, as a ticketed 20-minute installation performance on a mother’s search for reconnection. The story that unfolds for as long as a single incense stick burns. I had the opportunity to preview a few minutes rather than the full show, but even that was enough to get a sense of it.
The Hall was lit in a mesmerising orange glow, thick with light smoke and fog. Off to one side, a performer was setting up for a liquid light show, the kind where coloured liquids are dropped and swirled in a pan and projected live.
Once an incense stick was lit, the performance began, the “Mother” wandered into the Hall as the first colours dropped into the pan.
As the story built, the character grew more dramatic and energetic, and the liquid light show swelled to fill the space, light moving like water, like smoke, like memory taking shape. It made for a surreal, immersive moment.
You can experience a sneak preview of Between Stories as the projection mapping element will run on 21 August as part of the SG Night Fest 2026 Opening Party (for free!). The full experience will be presented as ticketed sessions on 3 and 4 September. Book Between Stories on Klook.
Once Upon A Time (Capitol Singapore)
Once Upon A Time by Natalia Tan turns Capitol Singapore’s Outdoor Plaza into a playful space scattered with numerous craft animal sculptures. Have fun guessing which creature is which as you wander through.
The installation anchors Maker’s Emporium, one of this year’s Festival Villages, where visitors can also join sustainable upcycling workshops and browse artisan market booths alongside the animals. Opening hours run 5pm to 10:30pm, though workshops and market stalls follow their own select dates and hours, so it’s worth checking the Maker’s Emporium programme page before heading down.
Rising of Sisters’ Islands (Funan)
Rising of Sisters’ Islands by SERIAL CO_ is inspired by the legend of the real Sisters’ Islands off Singapore’s southern coast. You can find it at Funan, right at the Kinetic Art Wall.
Unfortunately the work was already covered up when I visited.
Inter-Light (Raffles City Singapore)
Inter-Light by Ching Kai felt like watching a shadow play at night, the kind you would see in traditional street puppet performances, but rendered in a more colourful, abstract form. Different walls carry parts of a “performance,” and the installation encourages walking around rather than viewing it from a fixed spot. Visit in the day and you get a different experience altogether, since the piece functions more as a reflective structure.
Lovebug (National Library Building)
Lovebug by ART-ZOO brings Raffles’ Banded Langurs, saga seeds, nutmegs and rafflesia plants scaled up into giant inflatables. Some of the pieces double as seating, so visitors can actually rest on the smiling rafflesia as part of the display. The langur sculptures are the largest in the set and unsurprisingly the most popular photo spot. If you know ART-ZOO’s work, the style here will be familiar and playful.
The work also sits within NLB’s own All Things Singapore 2026, a concurrent programme of art installations, performances and hands-on activities running across the National Library Building and National Archives of Singapore, so there is more to explore at the same site beyond the inflatables. Full programme details are on the All Things Singapore 2026 page.
Stormy Straits (Bugis Street Art Lane)
Stormy Straits by Melting Po(r)t Collective turns the Art Lane into an immersive walk, one where you get to choose your own path through it. Stick to the calmer patches of cloud, or head straight under the stormy ones, the installation lets you decide how rough a crossing you want. Glowing lighthouses along the way offer a bit of respite, and doubling as a collectible, since each one carries a transparency you can pick up.
Duck into some of the nooks along the lane and you will find smaller parts of the work tucked away, including a lightbox lantern in one corner. Another nice touch is how the street furniture itself has been folded into the installation, benches and seating furnished to match, encouraging visitors to actually sit down and take in the clouds rather than just walk through.
A Date with Tradition (Stamford Arts Centre)
A Date with Tradition 2026 at Stamford Arts Centre runs across three weekends and brings a mix of traditional arts, performances and workshops to the space. Here are two highlights that I got to preview:
The first was Journey to the West (Kathakali), performed by Bhaskar’s Arts Academy. This is an intercultural dance-theatre production that retells episodes from the classical Chinese epic with an Indian twist. I honestly did not expect to see Journey to the West presented this way, and if you are a Black Myth: Wukong fan, this might be right up your alley. The full performance runs about 30 minutes and focuses on a single episode, Lady Spiders, which is probably for the best. Adapting the entire epic would keep everyone there until sunrise. Performances run on 21 and 22 August, 7pm and 8pm, free, presented in English with song lyrics in Mandarin.
The second is Where the Wildflowers Grow: Rooted, an interactive light and movement installation by Kester Wong and Tan Shao Qi. Touch the flower stems and they sway, the movement lingering and leaving behind shadows that keep shifting even after you walk away. This version, “Rooted,” is on view at Stamford Arts Centre throughout the festival, following its debut at iLight Singapore 2026.
More details on the full A Date with Tradition 2026 programme here.
THE BLOOMING HEARTS FORTUNE MERLION (Plaza Singapura)
Consider this a detour, since it sits a little apart from the rest of the route. THE BLOOMING HEARTS FORTUNE MERLION by UNIPLAY is a colourful mashup of two icons, part fortune cat, part Merlion, dialled all the way up.
Walk around to the back and there is more going on than the sculpture itself lets on. It tells the story of PET bottle recycling, with a 3D printer running live as part of the display. There is also a small game attached, and if you score among the top players, you stand a chance to walk away with one of the limited-edition multicoloured 3D printed Fortune Merlions, which retail at S$188 each.
Light Together Bras Basah.Bugis
Four more light installations are still on display nearby as part of the inaugural Light Together Bras Basah.Bugis, presented in conjunction with the Night Festival, including Touch Wood! by Arup at Artspace @ Waterloo Centre.
For the full lineup, read my earlier feature on Light Together Bras Basah.Bugis 2026.
Plan Your Visit
Singapore Night Festival 2026
21 August to 5 September 2026
Bras Basah.Bugis precinct
Timings vary by venue, but most installations are on from:
7:30PM to 12:00AM on Fridays and Saturdays
7:30PM to 11:00PM on Sundays to Thursdays
Most programmes are free. Selected experiences are ticketed or require registration.
Ticketed Programmes
Between Stories is a ticketed immersive experience held on 3 and 4 September at CHIJMES Hall. Book Between Stories on Klook.
The Lost Legacy of Fort Canning: The Forbidden Hill runs on selected nights at Fort Canning Park, priced at $60. Book The Lost Legacy of Fort Canning on Klook.
Horror Nights @ Oldham Theatre screens on 22, 23, 29 and 30 August at the National Archives of Singapore, from 7:30PM to 9:00PM. Tickets are $10. Book Horror Nights @ Oldham Theatre on Klook.
For more information, visit the official Singapore Night Festival 2026 website.
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