M1 Singapore Fringe Festival
Join us for the 21st iteration of the festival in January!
Check out the line-up for 2025's edition at singaporefringe.com and get your tickets now!
The M1 Singapore Fringe Festival is an annual festival of theatre, music, dance, visual arts and mixed media created and presented by Singaporean and international artists. Themed differently each year, the Festival aims to bring the best of contemporary, cutting-edge and socially engaged works to the Singapore audience.
First held with great success in 2005, the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival is set to be a creative centre, with a twin-purpose of innovation and discussion; a platform for meaningful and provocative art to engage our increasingly connected and complex world.
Between 2018 to 2020, under the artistic direction helmed by Sean Tobin, the Fringe broke from its previous themes in the "Art & __________" format, and adopted a series of new themes that referenced iconic Singaporean artists and their signature work. Through the borrowing of their work, the Fringe aimed to honour the artist and recognise and build on the lasting universal significance and resonance of his or her work. Over the three years, the Fringe threw the spotlight on Singapore artists Amanda Heng, Suzann Victor and Lee Tzu Pheng, with the themes over the respective years—"Let's Walk" in 2018, "Still Waters" in 2019 and "My Country and My People" in 2020—taken from titles of their works.
In 2021 and 2022, the Fringe’s artistic directorship was undertaken by Alvin Tan, Artistic Director of The Necessary Stage. Since then, the Fringe is helmed by Executive Producer Melissa Lim and Festival Manager Jezamine Tan of The Necessary Stage.
The most recent edition of the festival was our 20th edition in 2024, which took place from 17 to 28 January. The festival managed to reach out to an enthusiastic and warm audience of 2,375 people via ticketed events.
The next edition will take place from 8 to 19 January 2025. Find out more at the website here.
If you are interested in participating in the 2026 edition of the Fringe as an artist, please visit our webpage here for more details on the application process. The deadline for applications is Friday 7 March 2025, 12:00PM Singapore Time (GMT +8).
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History of the Fringe
The festival began with Youth Explosion! in 1997 and grew into the M1 Youth Connection in 1998. It was then renamed M1 Theatre Connect in 2004 to embrace a wider audience of youth, before evolving into the successful M1 Singapore Fringe Festival which has already seen 16 editions from 2005 to 2020.
The Fringe involves young people and adults as creators, audience and participants, all the while creating awareness and engagement of the annual theme broached through the artistic works showcased. It has since involved and featured artists from 38 countries, showcasing their works alongside young and established Singapore artists.
M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2014: Art and the People celebrated its 10th edition with 15 works from six countries over 12 days, and saw the highest ticketed audience in the history of the Fringe with an average house of 93% house.
Between 2015 to 2020, we appointed Sean Tobin, previous Head of Theatre at School of the Arts, Singapore (SOTA), as our artistic director, allowing him to bring forth his vision for the Festival for the Singapore audience, and also forges new relationships between The Necessary Stage as organisers and artists and curators in the scene. Between 2018 to 2020, Sean launched a three-year series of Fringe instalments themed around iconic Singaporean artists and their signature works. Each year, a Singapore artist and a selected work is nominated as the theme, and artists from a range of disciplines from Singapore and abroad are invited to respond to theme with their own new or existing works. Through the borrowing of their work, we aim to honour the artist and recognise and build on the lasting universal significance and resonance of his or her work.
In 2021 and 2022, the Fringe’s artistic directorship was undertaken by Alvin Tan, Artistic Director of The Necessary Stage. Since then, the Fringe is helmed by Executive Producer Melissa Lim and Festival Manager Jezamine Tan of The Necessary Stage.
The Fringe's current title donor, M1 Limited, will be ending its support of the festival after the 2025 edition after 20 years of a fruitful partnership. To keep the festival going beyond 2025, we are currently doing a public fundraising drive for the 2026 festival, whilst looking for a new title donor for future editions.
Please champion our cause to create impactful and empowering art and advocate for fellow independent voices which the Fringe has been actively supporting over the years. Find out more about the fundraising drive here.