M1 Singapore Fringe Festival

Check out the line-up for 2023'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.

Since 2021, the Fringe’s artistic directorship has been undertaken by Alvin Tan, Artistic Director of The Necessary Stage. The most recent edition of the festival was our 18th edition in 2022, which took place from 12 to 23 January with the theme of The Helpers. The festival, held during the COVID-19 pandemic with restricted houses, managed to reach out to 1,788 people via ticketed and free events.

The next edition will take place from 4 to 15 January 2023. Find out more at the website here.

If you are interested in participating in the 2024 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 3 March 2023, 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.

For the 2021 and 2022's edition, Alvin Tan, Artistic Director of The Necessary Stage returned to helm the Fringe as Artistic Director. The next edition of the Festival will take place from 4 to 15 January 2023. Find out more at our website at www.singaporefringe.com .