10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Crowdfunding saves Singapore Fringe Festival, which returns in January 2026
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The Singapore Fringe Festival has championed alternative voices such as Birds Migrant Theatre, which presented The Troupe in the 2025 edition.
SINGAPORE – The Singapore Fringe Festival, one of the country's longest-running fringe festival, returns from Jan 14 to 25, 2026, thanks to crowdfunding efforts.
Organised by local theatre company The Necessary Stage (TNS), it raised $50,519 from 156 donors through a campaign from Oct 28, 2024, to March 31, 2025.
Telco M1, which had been supporting the festival since its inception in 2005, ended its support in 2025 .
TNS' general manager Melissa Lim says it is hoping to keep the festival at the same size as previous editions. The festival costs about $230,000 to stage and 2025's edition featured seven productions.
Ms Lim adds: 'We are hoping to keep to around six productions if all goes well.
'While our fund-raising call has raised just slightly above our target of $50,000, we will also be relying heavily on ticket sales and hopefully more donations come in.'
The festival has traditionally commissioned and programmed cutting-edge art-making from alternative voices, presenting over 1,000 Singapore and international works over its 21 editions. Its championing of provocative works has resulted in occasional censorship kerfuffles over the years.
In 2017, two shows – performance lecture Naked Ladies by Thea Fitz-James and interactive piece Undressing Room by Ming Poon – were cancelled after the Infocomm Media Development Authority denied them ratings for 'excessive nudity'.
Other shows have also dealt with hot-button social issues ranging from climate change to mental health.
The festival is a fixture on Singapore's performing arts calendar and is also one of the most affordable tickets around. Tickets for the last edition topped out at $38, ensuring that the shows remained accessible for young audiences.
One of the biggest individual donors to the campaign, who wanted to be known only as Ms Tay, says: 'TNS has provided a valuable platform through the Fringe Festival, to support emerging theatre-makers and writers over the last two decades, and I hope they can continue to do so.'
Ms Lim says although the crowdfunding campaign has ended, donors have still been writing in to contribute. She welcomes any additional donations, saying: 'The Fringe has been a ground-up initiative, and now, more than ever, we need the public to step up and stand with us.
'If you believe in the power of socially conscious art, support us – buy tickets, spread the word and, if you can, donate. Every bit helps sustain this vital platform.'
