Inside Singapore Night Festival 2026: how myths and legends took over Bras Basah.Bugis
The 17th edition traced Singapore's own folklore across the precinct's museums, churches and shophouses in more than 90 programmes, from shadow puppetry to a projection-mapping duel on The Cathay's facade.
Singapore Night Festival returned for a 17th edition across three weekends from 21 August to 5 September, transforming the Bras Basah.Bugis precinct into an after-dark trail of light, sound and performance built around this year's theme: myths and legends.
Festival director Qazim Karim has said the theme traces back to a walk around Fort Canning, once known as Bukit Larangan, or Forbidden Hill, a discovery that set the tone for a festival retelling the stories, real and imagined, that shaped Singapore and the wider region.
More than 90 programmes
More than 90 programmes unfolded across the precinct's landmarks. At the National Museum of Singapore, Indonesian artist collective The Fox, The Folks projected "Tales of Earth and Sea" onto the building's facade, scored by local music collective Artusik.
At The Cathay, four familiar faces from Singapore's entertainment industry (Gurmit Singh, Xiang Yun, Suhaimi Yusof and Kumar) competed in the inaugural MALAM Projection Mapping Competition, with a winner announced on 28 August. At CHIJMES, "Between Stories" paired a liquid light show with live performance over two nights, and Bugis Street Art Lane hosted "Stormy Straits", illuminated structures built by the Melting Po(r)t Collective around the journeys of Bugis seafarers.
Dutch company Close-Act Theatre brought "Birdmen" to the opening weekend: a roving parade of six-metre-tall illuminated creatures on stilts, performed twice nightly. At SMU Connexion, "Once Upon an Island" retold the island's founding myths through shadow puppetry.
Free, and built to be walked
As in past editions, most of the programme was free and spread across public spaces rather than ticketed venues, with only a handful of shows, including "Between Stories", charging admission. Organiser HeritageSG laid the route out as a walkable trail through the precinct's museums, churches and shophouses, letting visitors piece the festival's myths and legends together one stop at a time.
Sources: Little Day Out, AsiaOne
