Things To Do In Singapore: A Saturday Market At Objectifs, A Void Deck Party & More

WEEK OF JUNE 15:

HANG OUT AT A VOID DECK PARTY

Singapore can always do with more (genuine) third spaces, and events organisers Playces is doing its part with this delightfully unstructured void deck gathering in Yishun. Expect takoyaki, chicken cutlets, instant noodles, Milo, vinyl records, and whatever else emerges when a group of strangers and friends gather around induction cookers for an evening.

Organised in collaboration with Chop Community, the event is less about programming and more about practising the simple act of hanging out. Bring a friend (or a friend of a friend), grab a snack from the mama shop next door, and settle in for conversations, music from a lovingly assembled vinyl collection, and perhaps even an impromptu screening of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Sign up here

June 20, 2pm - 6pm, at Blk 287 Yishun Avenue 6, #01-443

CHECK OUT A TENDER QUEER EXHIBITION

In conjunction with Pride Month, Singapore label Rye is transform its New Bahru store into a temporary gallery with Ways of Holding, a group exhibition featuring queer artists Chuen Kah Jun, Dylan Chan, Alvin Ong and Suhui Hee. The exhibition explores queerness not as a fixed identity, but as something fluid, relational and constantly evolving, posing questions about what shapes us and what sustains us as we grow and change. Alongside the artworks, visitors can also browse a museum-style gift shop stocked with books from Epigram, artist-made objects and exclusive pieces created for the exhibition. Better still, a portion of artwork sales will be donated to queer organisations.

June 20 (5pm - 6.30pm) - June 27, 11am - 7.30pm, at Rye, New Bahru, 46 Kim Yam Road, #03-07

HEAD FOR A FEEL GOOD PIZZA PARTY

Your favourite music-and-drawing party Beats & Doodles is back for another edition, this time at Lilibird, the cosy space above beloved bakery Mother Dough. There’ll be drawing materials for all, with DJs Cherry Chan and Umami Upapi on deck to keep the vibes going. Meanwhile, there’ll be special one-night-only dishes from Mother Dough: think beef chorizo pizza with burrata and red peppers, cacio e pepe pizza, chicken meatball soup and more. Yum.

June 20, 6pm - 10pm, at Mother Dough Bakery level 2,  3 Jalan Kledek

CATCH AN EXHIBITION THAT RIFFS ON 1960S SINGAPORE

Art collective Ripple Root’s twelfth solo exhibition Postcards From My Darling Love draws inspiration from the 1965 film Chinta Kasih Sayang (My Darling Love) by Hussein Haniff, reimagining its bittersweet blend of romance, humour and domestic tension through the artist duo’s signature painterly, mixed-media style. Moving between scenes of everyday Singapore life and cinematic memory, the works revisit familiar landscapes like East Coast Park, Haw Par Villa and the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, reframed through a nostalgic, almost filmic lens. At its core, the exhibition reflects on love, labour and longing, and the quiet ways these themes still persist across generations in Singapore.

June 18 - 28, 12pm - 7pm daily (closed on Mondays), at Objectifs, Lower Galleries 1 & 2, 155 Middle Road

HEAD DOWN TO OBJECTIFS FOR A DAY OF LIVE MUSIC, BOOKS, AND FILM

Film and photography space Objectifs’s latest Saturdate edition is themed around the notion of music and how it inspires creative communities. The day opens with art book platform Part Time Book Club exploring the idea of “noise” as something to sit with rather than shut out, followed by an acoustic set by indie rock band freereina!, and a Sound and Print Fair featuring local music-adjacent makers and small brands. As night falls, the space shifts into Now Showing, with a screening of hip-hop music videos from Malaysia and Singapore.

June 20, 1pm - 9.30pm, at Objectifs, 155 Middle Road

SOAK UP SOME RAYS AT THIS SAPPHIC POOL PARTY

Pride Month can feel like a marathon of events, which is exactly why Nail Clipper Club’s Breaststroke sounds so appealing. Taking over The Standard’s pool this Saturday, the sapphic pool party promises an afternoon of lounging, swimming, cocktails, and poolside beats courtesy of Singapore’s Lilith Blaque and Kuala Lumpur’s Rin. Think less high-energy rave and more sun-soaked hangout with your lovers, friends, and chosen family. If you’re looking for a way to soak up the Pride atmosphere before Pink Dot weekend rolls around, this might just be the move.

Get your tickets here

June 21, 3pm - 7pm, at The Standard’s pool,  12 Orange Grove Road

CATCH HE.SHE.THEY. (LONDON) LIVE IN SINGAPORE

London’s HE.SHE.THEY. lands in Singapore for its debut show, teaming up with local collectives FOMOHOMO and MISMATCH for a night of house, techno and queer club energy built around one clear ethos: a dancefloor where everyone is welcome, as long as they move through it with respect and intention. The London-based collective is known globally for its inclusive, touring rave concept—part club brand, part cultural platform—bringing together DJs and performers across cities like Berlin, New York and Ibiza to centre diversity, visibility and community in nightlife.

Headlining the night is HE.SHE.THEY. resident Bimini, the London DJ and artist known for high-intensity sets that move between house, electro, breaks and leftfield club sounds, often threaded with live vocals and a punk-edged energy. The rest of the line-up features favourites from Singapore’s queer nightlife scene like DJ Loyboy and drag queens Fivey, Izzy, Ershii, Plegm and Sapphire Blast, turning the night into a genuine exchange between local and international club cultures.

Get your tickets here

June 19, 10pm till late, at MDLR, 62 Cecil Street, #02-00 TPI Building

FIND A NEW JOB AT THE INCLUSIVE CAREERS FAIR

The Inclusive Careers Fair brings together employers, community organisations and jobseekers for a one-day event centred on inclusion in Singapore’s workplaces. It’s designed for LGBTQ+ individuals, persons with disabilities, neurodivergent talent, racial and ethnic minorities, and women — essentially anyone who hasn’t always had an easy entry point into traditional hiring spaces.

Alongside recruitment booths, there are networking sessions and informal mentorship opportunities with career professionals, plus a photo booth for a quick CV refresh (because a good headshot still goes a long way). It’s part job fair, part community space, and part reminder that “access” in the workplace still often has to be actively built.

More info here

June 20, 10am - 5pm, at WeWork, 21 Collyer Quay, Levels 1, 2 & 18

WEEK OF JUNE 8

DROP BY THIS MAKERS’ MARKET

Local craft store Sideway is putting on a fun little market spotlighting a group of local makers — the intention is to encourage people to pick up crafted objects as readily as they would groceries at their local market, and so everything showcased at this exhibition will be themed around the idea of a market. Makers include ceramic artists Hans Chew, Syn Ceramic, Embers Pottery and Keneth Tan and Yasha Lai, the founders and potters behind Sideway.

 June 13, 10am - 5pm, June 14, 11am - 5pm, at Sideway, 30 Seng Poh Road, #01-85 Tiong Bahru Market

CATCH ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED FILMS OF THE YEAR: OBSESSION

Curry Barker’s indie horror drama Obsession is finally opening in Singapore this week and we’re keen to see what the fuss is all about. After all, it’s the little film that could: made on a shoestring budget of US$750K, it’s now grossed over US$200 million. For the uninitiated, the film focuses on a music store employee, who uses a supernatural toy to make a wish, hoping that it’d compel his friend Nikki to fall in love with him. Well he certainly got that and more - check out our writer’s no-spoiler review of Obsession.

Get your tickets here

Opens June 11, at Filmhouse, 6001 Beach Road, #05-00 Golden Mile Tower

HIT THE COOLEST QUEER PARTY IN TOWN

New queer club night CINDY makes its Singapore debut with a line-up that bridges New York’s underground dance scene and Singapore’s own after-dark community. Making their Singapore debuts are NYC selectors WILHELMINA and CASTILLONAIRE, two rising names in East Coast club culture known for sets that weave together jersey club, hard drum, techno and diasporic rhythms. Fast, percussive and emotionally charged, their sound sits at the intersection of underground dance music and community-driven nightlife.

They’re joined by local favourites Lilith Blaque, howrøng and C2AC, whose sets span ballroom, techno and experimental club sounds from Singapore’s own queer nightlife ecosystem. Before the night opens up, there’s also a pre-party dinner featuring Indonesian cuisine, music and conversation—a slower, more intimate way to gather before the chaos kicks in. From dinner table to dancefloor, CINDY is less a standard club night and more a full evening built around community, connection and movement across scenes.

Get your tickets here

Dinner starts at 7pm - 10pm, June 12, at HOST bar 55A Neil Road, level 2. The party takes place on June 12, 10pm - 3am, at TUFF club, 138 Robinson Road, #19-01 Oxley Tower

VISIT A RENAISSANCE FAIRE WITH A TWIST

We saw the first Ren Faire (Renaissance Faire) in January this year and now there’s a new one called Lion City Faire that basically asks: what if a Renaissance fair was built around Singapore instead of medieval Europe? Lion City Faire imagines exactly that, transforming Fort Canning into a fantasy world inspired by local folklore, regional myths and the island’s history as a port settlement. Expect roaming performers, quests, workshops, live-action roleplay, tabletop gaming, more than 70 market vendors and plenty of attendees dressed as characters from this make-believe realm.

Get your tickets here

June 13 - 14, 10.30am - 7.30pm, at Fort Canning Park

POP BY CJ HENDRY’S VIRAL FLOWER MARKET

Australian artist CJ Hendry brings her viral Flower Market installation to Singapore, transforming a gallery into a dreamlike greenhouse filled with tens of thousands of plush flowers. Part art installation, part very photogenic fever dream, the experience invites visitors to wander through rows of oversized blooms, including plush versions of local favourites like the Vanda Miss Joaquim and Singapore Ginger Flower. Better still, every visitor gets a flower to take home.

Get your tickets here

June 10 - 14, 9am - 9pm, at IMBA Theatre, 18 Marina Gardens Drive, #01-24

TAKE PART IN A BUTOH WORKSHOP

Artists and butoh practitioners Elden and Kansh are running a one-off movement workshop that uses butoh—a slow, expressive form of Japanese dance—to explore queer identity through the body. Participants will be guided through simple exercises, storytelling and movement prompts that focus on themes like connection, identity and how we relate to ourselves and others. Rather than a traditional dance class, the session is about noticing how emotion and experience can be expressed physically, and creating space for reflection and shared movement in a supportive group setting.

Register for a spot here

June 11, 7pm - 10pm, at *SCAPE, 2 Orchard Link

HIT A SHOWCASE OF VIETNAMESE STREETWEAR LABELS

Independent design space Tokonoma continues its blistering run of shows with New World Order, a collaboration with cult Vietnamese multi-label boutique 808couture and Singapore streetwear label Loncho Factory, bringing fifteen independent labels from Ho Chi Minh City to Singapore for a rare, in-person snapshot of a scene usually encountered online in fragments.

Names like Bacykism, CH2, Feinicko and Offonoff Club sit alongside other emerging labels that move between subculture, streetwear and more experimental design languages. Rather than a neatly themed showcase, it reads more like a compressed ecosystem — different design instincts held in the same room, rubbing up against each other and revealing how varied, and alive, Vietnam’s independent fashion scene actually is.

June 12 - 14, 12pm - 7pm, at Tokonoma, 16 Shaw Road, #03-10

POP INTO THE 5210PM PARTY

After a short hiatus, everyone’s favourite feel-good daytime party Sunday Mess returns to Dempsey for a daytime edition focused on Singapore’s local selectors — from newer names to long-running fixtures shaping the city’s listening culture. Powered by the 5210pm soundsystem, the party keeps its brief simple: good DJs, no excess, and a room that feels more like a gathering than a programme.

Get your tickets here

June 13, 4pm - 10pm, at The Pantry, 16A Dempsey Road

WEEK OF JUNE 1

STEP INTO A LIBRARY OF RARE JAPANESE MAGAZINES

For five days only, Supper House gallery turns into a browsing library of rare Japanese magazines from the 1990s and early 2000s, brought together by Dirt Fruits and em___porium. More than 60 titles — including cult staples like FRUiTS, KERA and CUTiE — are available to flip through, offering a snapshot of Japan’s Heisei-era street style, subcultures and visual experimentation. It’s less an exhibition to look at than a space to sit in, leaf through, and get lost in — a kind of time capsule of youth culture before algorithms and feeds.

June 1 - 5, 12pm - 7pm, at Supper House, 37 Keppel Road, #04-02

SHOP ARCHIVAL FASHION, CONTEMPORARY ART, AND CULTURE ALL IN ONE ROOM

‘See See Look Look’ is one of the largest independent fashion archival markets to take place in Singapore — but what makes it interesting isn’t just the scale. It’s the way it deliberately collapses different scenes into the same space: archival fashion, emerging local labels, contemporary art, rare publications, food, and music, all happening at once inside Supper House at Tanjong Pagar Distripark.

Across 33 vendors from eight countries, you’ll find everything from archival grails and cult designer pieces to smaller independent makers from Singapore and across the region. The point isn’t just to shop — it’s to see what happens when these usually separate worlds are placed side by side, without hierarchy.

June 6 - 7, 12pm - 8pm, at Supper House, 37 Keppel Road, #04-02

SETTLE INTO AN EXPERIMENTAL LISTENING SESSION

Parallel Playground returns for its second edition with a night that sits somewhere between a listening session and a club experience. Led by Kin Leonn and Yetpet, the programme moves away from standard dancefloor sets into something more open-ended — less about building to a peak, more about exploring different directions in sound.

DJs Kin Leonn steps outside his usual ambient style into more varied territory, while Yetpet brings an unpredictable approach that keeps the night from settling into one mood for too long. The idea is simple: you’re not here for a typical club set, but for something looser and more experimental in form.

Get your tickets here

June 6, 5pm - 10pm, at a hidden venue (location will be shared with ticket holders 24 hours before)

HEAD FOR SINGAPORE’S LARGEST HARAJUKU-INSPIRED MARKET

Popular J-fashion market Konbini returns for its fifth edition — and this time, it’s the biggest one yet. More than 80 booths will take over *SCAPE Ground Theatre, bringing together preloved J-fashion and alt fashion, handmade accessories, trinkets, and independent local labels in one sprawling market space.

But it’s not just a shopping event. Konbini leans fully into its Harajuku-inspired energy, with visitors encouraged to show up in full looks, get photographed, and move through the space as much as they shop it. There are also styling stations, photobooths, and small perks built into the day — from makeup and hair touch-ups to stamp-based rewards and giveaways.

June 6 - 7, 11am - 7pm, at *SCAPE Ground Theatre, 2 Orchard Link

WALK THROUGH LIGHT, ART, AND A CITY TRANSFORMED AFTER DARK

Light festival i Light Singapore is back, with this year’s theme, To Gather, unfolding across 17 large-scale light installations that turn the city into a walkable night circuit of art and public space.

The works are designed to respond to movement. Some shift with footsteps, others with biometric inputs, while oversized installations remake familiar waterfront spaces into something slightly disorienting. The effect is a city that doesn’t just light up, but reacts to people moving through it.

Among the line-up is Japanese artist Masamichi Shimada, whose work WAVE (pictured) turns the ground into a responsive field of light and sound. Visitors tap a series of silver rods embedded in the floor to trigger ripples that spread across the surface like raindrops on water — a simple interaction that becomes a visual reminder of how small actions can create larger effects.

More details here

June 5 - 28, 7.30pm - 10.30pm, at various locations across Marina Bay, South Beach, Singapore River and Raffles Place

ENTER ONE OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST SCI-FI & FANTASY EXHIBITIONS

Sci-fi geeks, you don’t want to miss this one. Opening this month, PORTALS turns a 13,000 sq ft space on Scotts Road into an immersive walk-through journey across eight themed “realms” inspired by fantasy, sci-fi, and gaming worlds. It’s part exhibition, part set build — moving visitors through fully constructed environments rather than a traditional gallery display.

At its core is something you almost never get to see in public: original sci-fi and fantasy book cover paintings. These are the physical works — oil, acrylic, gouache canvases — that defined the Golden Age visual language of the genre. Not prints, not reproductions, but the actual originals, shown at full scale.

The experience also includes a new Singapore commission, Future Singapore: 2126, a series by illustrator Kristal Melson that reimagines the city a century into the future and is available in limited form at the gift shop.
At a time when most imagery is digital and disposable, PORTALS is built around something slower and more physical — paint, texture, and worlds made by hand.

Get your tickets here

On now till Sept 2, 9am - 9pm, at Fever Exhibition Hall, 25 Scotts Road

CATCH NIALL BREEN’S FIRST SHOW IN SINGAPORE

Heartware Store & Gallery presents the first Singapore exhibition by Irish comic artist Niall Breen, best known for his quietly funny, deeply comforting Dog & Frog comics that have built a cult following online over the years.

At a time when everything feels like it’s moving faster, Breen’s work sits in the opposite direction. His daily comics focus on small, ordinary moments — the kind you usually scroll past — turning them into something tender, funny, and unexpectedly grounding. Lazy Days with Dog & Frog extends that world into physical space, with an exhibition built around slowness, stillness, and doing very little on purpose.

Alongside the works is a range of collaborative objects — blankets, mats, pillowcases — designed less as merch, more as permission to stay in bed a little longer. It’s a simple idea, but an easy one to miss in a city like this: nothing happening can still be something worth paying attention to.

On now till July 26, 12pm - 7pm daily, at Heartware Store & Gallery, 350B Joo Chiat Road

SEE HOW A TRADITIONAL CRAFT GETS A CONTEMPORARY UPGRADE

Chinese seal carving is usually something you see at the end of a painting or calligraphy work — a small stamp, almost like a signature. This exhibition Rock and ? puts the seal squarely n the spotlight instead.

Rock and ? brings together artists Michelle JN Lim and Tan Seow Wei, who are rethinking what seal carving can be today. Instead of sticking to traditional formats, they use seal carving in collage, prints, painting, and mixed media works, turning it into something more experimental and playful.

Lim’s works look at modern dating, heartbreak, and emotional burnout, using carved phrases that feel personal and relatable, while Tan’s works draw from everyday Singaporean food and local slang, turning familiar words and ideas into visual art. The result is a simple idea: a traditional craft, shown in a way that feels fresh, current, and easy to connect with.

June 6 - 14, 11am - 7pm at Art Outreach, 5 Lock Road, #01-06 Gillman Barracks

WEEK OF MAY 25:

CATCH QUEER STORIES ACROSS CLASSICS, CULT FILMS, AND CONTEMPORARY CINEMA

The beloved queer film festival Pink Fest is back for its ninth edition: this year’s programme moves between camp classics and contemporary queer cinema, tracing LGBTQ+ lives across generations, geographies and moods — from Hollywood drag-road-trip chaos in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), to the aching quiet of Brokeback Mountain (2005), and newer regional stories like Cactus Pears, which explore love, duty, survival and resistance in South Asian contexts. We’d also recommend Queer As Punk (pictured), the plucky documentary focusing on Malaysian queer punk band Shh … Diam! and its struggles in a country known for being conservative.

More than a screening series, Pink Screen feels like a reminder of what cinema can still do: pull people into the same room and make them sit with stories that are funny, painful, tender, defiant — sometimes all at once. It’s less about neat representation and more about the messy, very human ways people try to love, live and find themselves in the world.

Get your tickets here

May 29 - June 28, various times, at Filmhouse, 6001 Beach Road, #05-00 Golden Mile Tower

GET EDUCATED ON SUSTAINABILITY

Earthopia Fest is bringing climate action out of policy decks and into something more immediate — workshops, thrift racks, sound baths, and upcycled art. Organised by City Sprouts, the three-day festival gathers youth groups, artists, green businesses and community collectives across more than 100 partners and 5,000 participants, all orbiting a simple idea: sustainability only works if people can actually take part in it.

Across the weekend, that plays out in plastic turned into pouches, clothes reworked into identity experiments, soil and urban farming demos, climate anxiety conversations, and panel talks on heat, pollution and nature-based solutions — all threaded through installations that turn waste into something unexpectedly visual. Nights tip into live sets from Sobs, Heema Izzati, Club Mild, Shye and The Jukuleles, turning the park into something closer to a gathering than a programme. This is sustainability activism that’s not asking for perfect habits, just participation.

More details here

May 29 - 31, 10am - 10pm, at Fort Canning Green

HEAD TO PULAU UBIN FOR AN UNUSUAL ARTS FESTIVAL

Drama Box’s latest festival, Under Ubin Night Skies, takes over Pulau Ubin this weekend, inviting you to experience the island after dusk through theatre, sound, light and slow encounters with nature. The festival unfolds across a series of guided and open experiences, from forest therapy walks and a night nature tour, to promenade theatre In the Middle of the Water, which moves audiences through jetty, quarry, kampong and temple as stories of the island unfold in real time.

There are also acoustic sets by the jetty, hands-on art workshops using found materials, and the reprise of There is No Tiger in the Mountain, reflecting on how villagers live alongside wildlife. At night, Sai Hua Kuan’s Roam installation lights up the temple grounds, drawing from local tiger folklore and the idea of the island as a living, protective presence — while the festival closes with puppet theatre by The Finger Players and a concert of songs drawn from Ubin’s own histories and memories.

More details here

May 30 - June 5, various times, at Pulau Ubin

CATCH A SEAFOOD POP-UP THAT TURNS THE DINING TABLE INTO A WET MARKET STORY

Pasarfish — the education-meets-food-sustainability platform founded by Kenny Lek and Elliott James Ong — is best known for its wet market tours and research-led work on Singapore’s seafood culture, and for the first time, they’re doing a F&B pop-up at Chef X. (FYI, Chef X is a rotating F&B space launched by Far East Organization where chefs and food creators run short-term pop-ups and experimental dining concepts — basically a launchpad for new food ideas).

The result is part restaurant, part exhibition — where what you eat is tied directly to how it’s sourced, understood, and remembered. Across lunch, dinner and dessert, the 16-dish menu reworks familiar flavours through a whole-fish approach — from kaya toast reimagined with fish sauce and tee poh butter, to wolf herring brioche, fish bone broths, and desserts like tobiko tiramisu and anchovy caramel flan. It’s playful, but rooted in a deeper look at Singapore’s seafood heritage and how we eat today.

May 27 - July 26, at Chef X, Clarke Quay Central, 6 Eu Tong Sen Street, #03-103/104

SUPPORT SMALL LOCAL BIZ AND ARTISTS AT APPLE FARMACY

A market filled with merch from the cutest small biz owners, illustrators, and artists, all unique and unlike anything you’ll find in a mall - all gathered in one spot. What’s not to love?

May 30 - 31, 12pm - 7pm, at Venue+, 601 MacPherson Road, #06-08 Grantral Mall

ENTER A SONIC WORLD SHAPED BY VOLCANOES

Yes, it may be the earliest you’ll ever wake up for a performance, but we guarantee The Observatory’s RUPTURE work, shown as part of the ongoing Singapore International Festival of Arts, will be worth it. Inspired by volcanoes and seismic activity, the local art rock group gathered field recordings and seismic data from the Earth’s hidden movements and transformed it into an immersive soundscape that takes place at dawn.

Admission is free

May 28 - 30, 6.30am - 7.30am, at Empress Lawn outside Asian Civilisations Museum, 1 Empress Place

CATCH SINGAPORE’S BEST INDIE ACTS ALL IN ONE SPOT

If your ideal night involves live music, sweat, distortion, and leaving with your ears ringing a little, this one’s for you. Housekeeping wraps up a month of Filmhouse’s housewarming festivities with one final night of fuzz and groove featuring live sets from Fickle, Tomo Blu, Krunkle, Bellied Star and ABSRD., plus DJ sets by Disco Hue, failtrylagi and New Masculine. Entry is free, with pay-as-you-wish donations encouraged.

May 30, 7pm till late, at Filmhouse, 6001 Beach Road, #05-00 Golden Mile Tower

STEP INTO HIROSHI SUGIMOTO’S MESMERISING WORLD

The first major Southeast Asian solo exhibition by internationally renowned Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, the show gathers over 60 works across photography, sculpture, and installation — from his quietly hypnotic seascapes to works that feel more like objects of thought than objects of art.

Structured around the Buddhist idea of the Five Elements, the show doesn’t really behave like a traditional exhibition so much as it loops back on itself — earth into water into fire into wind into void — like it’s trying to dissolve the usual way you move through a gallery. It’s a rare chance to spend time with the work of one of the world’s most quietly influential contemporary artists.

 May 29 - Oct 4, 10am - 7pm, at Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Road

HIT UP A FLEA MARKET FOR THE VINTAGE LOVERS

A rotating flea market for things that deserve another chapter. What started as a casual, slightly chaotic living-room hang where neighbours wandered in and left with armfuls of finds is now back for its second edition, bigger, looser, and still built on the same simple thrill of giving old things somewhere new to go. Expect to score treasures from some of the island’s most stylish folks, including our favourite food artist Gong Hua.

May 30 - 31, 10am - 6pm, at Objects.re, 51 Tannery Lane, #08-01

WEEK OF MAY 18:

STEP INTO A SCHOLAR’S GATHERING THIS MAY

What happens when artisanal fashion, handmade objects, tea, coffee and a food installation collide in an industrial building along Shaw Road? You get ‘the scholar’s gathering’, a new two-day showcase presented by emerging artisanal clothing label A Looming Lily (pictured).

Started earlier this year by Timothy Ho and Reinard Risman — fresh graduates from NAFA’s Design Practice course — A Looming Lily approaches clothing-making with almost obsessive levels of care. Think hand-stitched buttonholes, garments produced in tiny batches, and buttons sculpted by the duo themselves using ceramic, 925 silver and even bog oak. Their slow, artisan-led approach feels almost like a quiet rebellion against mass production; less trend cycle, more Arts and Crafts movement. Elsewhere, Songs From The Pantry will be presenting a food installation, while Kurasu Singapore serves coffee and tea throughout the showcase.

If fast fashion and algorithm-churned aesthetics have you feeling a little spiritually exhausted, this exquisite showcase might just be the antidote.

May 23 - 24, 12pm - 8pm, at Tokonoma, 16 Shaw Road, #03-10

CHECK OUT THE LASALLE SHOW 2026

Graduation season is officially upon us and if you’re curious about what the next generation of Singapore creatives are making right now, The Lasalle Show 2026 is probably one to have on your radar. Returning this May, the annual showcase transforms the school’s McNally campus into a sprawling exhibition featuring over 600 works by graduating students across diploma, BA (Hons) and MA programmes.

Expect everything from contemporary art, design and film to animation, creative writing, art therapy and music therapy projects, all spread across various spaces within the campus. And yes, if you caught the buzz around last week’s Lasalle Graduate Fashion Show staged inside Cantonment MRT station, this is where you’ll also be able to get a closer look at the graduating fashion cohort’s collections.

Opens May 21, 7pm - 9pm, on till June 3, 12pm - 8pm daily, across various locations at Lasalle’s McNally Campus, 1 McNally Street

CATCH LAUFEY LIVE IN SINGAPORE

She’s back — and this time, it’s her biggest Asia tour yet. If you’ve been following Laufey’s journey (or just quietly replaying her songs on late-night walks), you’ll know this has been a long time coming. Laufey returns to Singapore this week, bringing her A Matter of Time Tour to the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Since we last spoke to her, Laufey’s rise has only sharpened — from sold-out shows across North America and Europe to picking up the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for A Matter of Time. But what hasn’t changed is the way her music feels: intimate, slightly old-world, a little cinematic, like it’s always been waiting somewhere in the background of your life. This tour sees her stepping onto much bigger stages, but still holding onto that signature softness — jazz-tinged melodies, classical textures, and lyrics that somehow feel like they know you personally.

Get your tickets here

May 19, 8pm, at Singapore Indoor Stadium, 2 Stadium Walk

IMMERSE YOURSELF INTO RISING ART STAR VANESSA LIEM’S SURREAL WORLD

What does it actually feel like to be watched? Not in a dramatic way, but in the everyday sense — when you’re aware of your body, your face, your presence in a room. That quiet tension sits at the centre of The Third Person in the Room, a new solo exhibition by fast-rising Singapore artist Vanessa Liem, who’s best-known for her introspective paintings, using an uncanny combination of colours, an unflinching presentation of the female body and distorted, alien-esque proportions to manifest her inner worlds.

This is Liem’s first solo show in Singapore after finishing her BA at the University of the Arts London, and it feels very much like a return — not just geographically, but emotionally. The works were made in her London studio, but they circle around something more internal: how it feels to exist when you’re aware of being observed.

In the paintings, people sit in rooms, stand under harsh light, or appear in mirrors that split them into fragments. Nothing is overly dramatic, but everything feels slightly heightened — like the moment you realise you’re being perceived, even when no one is speaking. At its core, the show isn’t asking you to decode anything. It’s more interested in that simple, slightly uncomfortable idea: what changes when you know you’re being seen?

On now till June 27, 12pm - 7pm, at Cuturi Gallery, 61 Aliwal Street

CATCH A FILM PROGRAMME THAT PRESENTS ALTERNATE VISIONS OF SINGAPORE

Singapore is often presented as a success story but what lies beneath its shiny exterior? The Asian Film Archive’s new programme, Reel Singapore, brings together films made in and about the city (pictured here: Kelvin Tong’s gritty ’90s classic Eating Air), from across different eras and perspectives.

Running throughout the month of May at Oldham Theatre, the programme is presented alongside Raphael Millet’s new book Singapore: A Cinematic Portrait, which traces more than a century of local cinema through archival material, interviews, posters and photographs. Together, they build a layered picture of Singapore on screen — shaped not just by locals, but also by migrants, visitors, and those passing through.

Check out the full line-up here

On now till May 30, various times, at Oldham Theatre, 1 Canning Rise

CATCH A FILM SCREENING ABOUT MIGRANT LIVES AND A POETRY READING

Culture programmer Weekend Culture returns with its sophomore edition this May, this time turning its attention to labour — not just as work, but as process, craft, and the often unseen systems that hold a city together.

Across film, music, workshops and community sessions, the programme opens up questions about what gets hidden behind Singapore’s surface of efficiency and progress. From construction sites behind blue tarps to the quiet realities of migrant life, it looks at the people and practices that rarely sit in plain sight.

One of the centrepieces is Lei Yuan Bin’s I Dream of Singapore (2019), a documentary that follows migrant worker Feroz between Singapore and Bangladesh, tracing the fragile line between aspiration and precarity. Alongside it is Bridging Worlds, Carrying Dreams, a poetry gathering by non-profit Migrant Writers of Singapore, spotlighting migrant voices writing through lived experience rather than observing from a distance. There’s also a DIY Pocketbook workshop by radioriotgrrrl invites audiences to build their own field notebooks using scrap materials — a hands-on way of thinking about documentation, memory, and everyday labour.

Get your tickets here

May 24, 1.30pm, at Filmhouse,6001 Beach Road, #05-00 Golden Mile Tower

HIT UP A VINYL MARKET

If your idea of a good weekend involves crate digging while someone spins dusty gems in the background, Bizarro Bazaar is probably worth clearing your Saturday for. Happening as part of Filmhouse’s opening month celebrations at Golden Mile Tower, the one-day music marketplace brings together a mix of record stores, collectors and independent vendors under one roof.

Expect stacks of vinyl, CDs, cassettes, merch, tees and zines — from rarities and collectibles to the kind of bargain-bin finds that somehow end up becoming your most-played purchase. Vendors this edition include Bizarro Market, BINYL, Alcoholiday, Indie Uncles and more. There’ll also be a rotating lineup of vinyl selectors soundtracking the day live, including Daniel Peters, KiDG, Nicolette, Phillson R and weelikeme, so expect plenty of reasons to linger longer than intended.

May 23, 2pm - 8pm, at Filmhouse,6001 Beach Road, #05-00 Golden Mile Tower

CATCH A SHOW REIMAGINING HOW WE SEE DISABILITY

What happens when everything that makes us human is erased? YEAR ZERO: Disability Redefined by non-profit organisation (which advocates for persons with disabilities in the arts) ART:DIS throws audiences into a world after collapse, where bodies are controlled, voices are silenced, and even memory feels unstable.

Commissioned by the ongoing Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), the outdoor production brings together eight disabled and non-disabled performers in a work that questions conventional ideas of ability, productivity and power — and asks who gets to be visible, heard, and remembered in the futures we build.

Rather than offering easy answers, YEAR ZERO leans fully into discomfort, urgency and collective rebuilding. The result feels less like traditional theatre and more like stepping into a fractured future still trying to imagine another way forward.

Admission is free

May 20 - 22, 8pm - 9pm, Empress Lawn, Asian Civilisations Museum, 1 Empress Place

WEEK OF MAY 11:

SAVOUR THE FIRST LOEWE FOUNDATION CRAFT PRIZE EXHIBITION IN SINGAPORE

One of the world’s most prestigious craft awards is landing in Southeast Asia for the first time — and yes, it’s happening right here in Singapore. From May 13 to June 14, the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize will take over the National Gallery Singapore with works from 30 finalists across ceramics, textiles, metalwork, furniture, jewellery, lacquer, bookbinding and more.

Started by Loewe and its cultural arm, the Loewe Foundation, the annual prize has quietly become one of the most respected platforms for contemporary craft today — less “traditional artisan fair”, more “what happens when centuries-old techniques get weird, conceptual and incredibly beautiful”. This year alone saw over 5,100 submissions from 133 countries.

Among the finalists is Singaporean bookbinder Adelene Koh, only the second Singapore artist to ever make the shortlist. Her work, Endless (pictured), takes one of bookbinding’s tiniest details — the embroidered endband stitched onto a book spine — and blows it up into a sculptural, architectural form made from folded pages, embroidery thread and aluminium wire. It’s meticulous, slightly obsessive, and exactly the kind of thing that makes you realise craft can be just as conceptually rich as contemporary art. Trust us, you don’t want to miss out on this show.

Check out our interview with Koh before you head down for the show here

May 13 - June 14, 10am - 7pm, at National Gallery Singapore, 1 St.Andrew’s Road