Singapore International Festival of Arts 2026
From 15 to 30 May 2026, the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) transforms stages and public spaces into sites of play. Led by the call-to-action ‘Let's Play!’, SIFA invites audiences to explore, experiment, engage and be inspired by the arts. From dawn soundscapes along the river to aerial performers suspended 25 feet in the air at Punggol, this year's Festival calls on audiences to rediscover both the joy and significance of coming together through art.
SIFA 2026 also launches ‘Diversity Futures: A Transnational Creative Think Tank’, a three-year initiative connecting emerging artists from The National Theatre Company of Korea's young directors programme, and Hong Kong Arts Festival's No Limits platform, with their peers and counterparts from Singapore. Through residencies, labs and collaborative experiments, Diversity Futures seeks to reimagine inclusive and sustainable creative practice across Asian contexts.
SIFA 2026 brings together artistic voices from Singapore and around the world, reflecting both innovation and heritage while nurturing cross-border collaboration. Highlights include:
- Lush Life (Singapore): Directed by internationally acclaimed Singaporean director Ong Keng Sen, Lush Life unfolds as an intimate documentary performance, weaving together their lives, artistry and enduring connections in a layered portrait of music, memory and identity.
- Salesman之死 (Singapore): Written by Jeremy Tiang and directed by Danny Yeo, this play centres on Arthur Miller's 1983 visit to Beijing to direct the first Chinese production of Death of a Salesman, a landmark staging that was brought to Singapore in 1986 by pioneer of Singapore theatre Kuo Pao Kun.
- YOU ARE (NOT) WHAT YOU EAT! (Singapore) by Yang Derong – a kaleidoscopic installation reflecting on Singapore's food culture and plastic consumption.
- Strangely Familiar《熟悉的陌生》(Singapore): A transcultural dance production by T.H.E Dance Company, co-created in collaboration with artists and designers from the region, combines live performers and digital embodiments to explore how culture, digital identities, and everyday norms intertwine in contemporary lives.
- LACRIMA (France): French director, author and filmmaker Caroline Guiela Nguyen's epic drama explores the human and social worlds behind a fictional Parisian haute couture commission for a royal wedding. Moving between workshops, families, and continents, the work brings together professional actors and non-professional performers to examine labour, secrecy, and the emotional weight carried by those whose hands create objects of desire.
- Hedda Gabler (South Korea): A contemporary reimagining of Ibsen's classic, starring one of the most prominent South Korean actress in the 1980s Lee Hye-young as the iconic heroine, exploring desire, frustration, and societal constraints with striking theatrical precision.
- Planet [wanderer] (France/Japan): Materialised as an intriguing result of a collaboration between choreographer Damien Jalet and scenographer Kohei Nawa, where they confront the bodies of the eight dancers with the materials and textures of the scenography to create a story of the visceral bond between people and planet.