Playground for all: Art is relatable, communal at Singapore Int’l Festival of Arts 2026

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

SINGAPORE — Five diners are happily munching on their spicy noodle dish and toasts as they wash these away with a sip of oolong tea. The sight is common, but what is not the usual is a headphone attached to their ears as they heartily laugh at the puns dished out by actors about trading their suits for a shot at taking on the stage and making people laugh and entertained with their performances. 

This is the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) 2026, currently ongoing until May 30 at different stunning venues across the renowned city-state. 

SIFA is marking its 49th year this year since it became a favorite art event among Singaporeans since its inception in 1977 as the Singapore Festival of Arts by the Ministry of Culture. 

Organized this year by the Arts House Group, among its highlights, and probably a favorite among festivalgoers, is the interactive Makan Culture, where diners are not just eating good food but are also educated about Singaporean culture. 

As they munch on their Singaporean bento and looking cool while wearing a headphone where they can listen to the actors’ dialogues, they are immersed in a story of a culture critic who finds her way back to appreciating her culture and food as told through music, theater and puppetry. 

On the same venue as the Makan Culture interactive show, rows of tables and benches are neatly spread at the Empress Lawn as vendors sell Singaporean food and drinks. There is even a booth that gives free cocktails! On one corner, an aerial show where performers showcase their flexibility hold the audience in awe as they comfortably sit on the lawn’s green grass.

“We love the Festival Village,” SIFA festival director and Singaporean playwright Chong Tze Chien told Philstar.com over lunch at Cafe Bricolage, the pay-as-you-wish restaurant adjacent to the Arts House Group’s building where its permanent exhibit of Singapore’s Cultural Medallion awardees is located. The Cultural Medallion is similar to the Philippines’ National Artist Awards. 

Even the lunch tells a story with its wise use of surplus ingredients, making each dish as sustainably sourced as possible. That particular lunch consisted of hummus drenched in olive oil and balsamic vinegar paired with a fried crisp and a creamy, flavorful ricotta topped with generous pieces of shrimp and a sprig of dill. 

“It’s almost like the Asian culture, right?” continued Chong. 

“You want to hang out late. After dinner, we want to go see a show. Singapore is so hot. It's only at nighttime that we can be part of nature and just relax under the trees, and Singapore is beautiful under the trees. We don't go under the trees as much as we like. So, it is a chance for us to breathe outside of work and also have conversations with strangers, with people,” Chong said on a humid afternoon. 

The SIFA’s Festival Village makes a return after nearly a decade, an apt comeback a year before the festival’s grand 50th anniversary next year. 

Chong, as an artist himself, said that he wanted to bring in an equal mix of shows that pique interest and give an avenue for artists to showcase their craft. 

It is his first year in his three-year tenure as festival director, and Chong showed how he intends to tell the story of Singapore as engaging as it could be. 

Exciting lineup

Art sometimes intimidates people because it can be high brow, but it does not necessarily have to be cliquish especially if it wants to relay a message. 

Chong’s curation embodies this thought. SIFA 2026 has an interesting mix of shows and performances for every kind of festivalgoer. 

At the Victoria Theatre, which is right across the Empress Lawn where the Festival Village is located, an interpretation of Arthur Miller’s famous 1983 production of his iconic classic “Death of A Salesman” in Beijing was staged. 

Writer Jeremy Tiang and director Danny Yeo take a look at Miller’s unforgettable staging of his famous play staged in the Chinese capital in 1983. Their “Salesman” is performed in Mandarin, with an English translation flashed on screen for non-Chinese speakers. It is a curious play, where viewers are taken into what could have transpired in that production, injected with humor, and audience participation is crucial with a select few sitting right on stage and having the best view in the whole production. 

Kids and kids-at-heart will undoubtedly like “Lighthouse,” an interactive light show at the Arts House in The Old Parliament. Participants scuttle from one room to another led by an astronaut in spacesuit as they play with colorful lights while being told the tale of the cosmos. 

“Tempo” at the Drama Centre Theatre at The National Library is for the more introspective viewer. It is a three-person play that shows each actor’s agility and quickness as they maneuver chairs and props (without making any sound at all!) while at the same time bend or contort their body to illustrate time as a concept that is not necessarily linear. 

“Tempo” leaves viewers to have open interpretations about it — opening up conversations even after the curtains closed. 

Perhaps one of the most-talked about play at SIFA 2026 that lingers much longer and needs a hot bowl of Laksa or a popsicle depending on its impact to the viewer is Caroline Guiela Nguyen’s epic drama “Lacrima.” 

It is staged at the Singtel Waterfront Theatre, where joggers are aplenty at nighttime, and a hawker is located right outside. But inside the theater, an emotional turmoil is slowly unfolding. 

“Lacrima” explores labor practices and mental health as seen through the eyes of artisans commissioned by a popular designer to create a diamond-studded wedding dress for an unnamed princess of England. At the center of the story is Marion Nicolas, the proprietor of Maison Beliana, who was commissioned by an ambitious designer named Alexander Schaaf. 

As Marion tries to juggle the demands of work and family life, particularly her husband Julian who also works with her in her workshop and their daughter Camille, Marion is left hanging by a thread as forces beyond her control come like an avalance one after another. 

Performed in French with English translation flashed on screen, “Lacrima” boasts a cast that is able to sustain an audience gripped in its story as they watch the drama escalate. The ending is obvious, yet it leaves quite a sense of helplessness and injustice as the last few minutes of the play unfolds. 

It is no suprise that “Lacrima” elicited a thunderous applause from its audience, who barely had three minutes of pause in the three-hour show. It is three hours worthy of time, and a night out of shaking off its lasting impact, or what Filipinos would do — pagpag — of anything that overwhelms the mind and emotions. 

“It's a really huge playground. What would I want to eat first and what would appeal to me first? As a curator, I'll be thinking about what would the audience experience if I were to select these five or six flavors together. It's almost like putting up a buffet, right? What makes a good buffet? It's not the usual things. It's really something special. When you see all these dishes, you're spoiled for choice and you want to try every single thing. That's the key to a great buffet. That's for me is like what is special menu. I had to be curious first to to basically put up that recipe,” Chong said. 

RELATED: Return of Festival Village, 'Hamlet' at Singapore International Festival of Arts 2026