SINGAPORE – Over 100,000 people took up the Singapore International Festival of Arts’ (SIFA) call to “Let’s Play” in the 2026 edition that ended on May 30. The six-figure attendance makes this the most popular edition of the annual performing arts event since the Arts House Group started organising it in 2014.

This is compared with 2025’s 70,000 figure, which was boosted by the first heartland pavilion in Bedok during the SG60 year.

In topping this, festival director Chong Tze Chien, who made his debut in 2026, can point to factors both internal and external.

His own more narrative-based programming appears to have played a part, backed by the resuscitation of the communal festival village of the 1990s on the lawn in front of Victoria Theatre, and an additional SIFA node in Punggol.

The SG Culture Pass scaffolded ticket sales, accounting for 30 per cent. This is the first Culture Pass-eligible SIFA since the Government launched the $100 credit scheme in 2025. The financial incentive similarly drove a 30 per cent increase in festivalgoers at 2025’s Singapore Writers Festival, reaping immediate results for the arts ecosystem.

Meanwhile, the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) congress, organised by the National Arts Council during SIFA’s second week, also supplied an influx of foreign delegates. Each of the 500 participants at ISPA from more than 125 cities was offered two tickets, and brought a gung-ho spirit to some of the more interactive shows.

Overall, the Arts House Group said ticket sales increased by over 40 per cent, so Chong’s three-year term is off to a swimming start.

The festival’s success was unclear in the beginning. Chong’s first-year slate was focused on the theme of Legacy, mostly of the artistic kind. Many shows on the main stage were art abo...