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Crowdfunded event returns with four shows and two panel discussions in January
The Straits Times
|November 12, 2025
Singapore Fringe Festival 2026
The Singapore Fringe Festival 2026 will be a "people's" festival, says Ms Melissa Lim, general manager of theatre company The Necessary Stage (TNS), which organises the event.
This is because the festival's shoestring budget of about $50,000 was raised entirely through crowdfunding from the public.
One of the country's longestrunning fringe festivals returns from Jan 15 to 25, with just four shows and two panel sessions, compared with seven shows in 2025. Telecommunications company MI, which had been a sponsor since the festival's inception in 2005, ended its financial support after the 21st edition in 2025.
Tickets for the 2026 event go on sale from Nov 11.
at MI's sponsorship started $250,000 and dipped to $100,000 by the festival's 2025 edition. Nonetheless, Ms Lim says: "I am still very grateful that it stuck with us. There are not many corporate sponsors in the arts that finance for such a long time."
This story is from the November 12, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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