Something’s brewing on Waterloo Street—and it’s more than just incense, kopi, and the scent of sun-dried herbs. This Singapore Night Festival, happening from 22 August to 6 September 2025, the historic stretch of Waterloo Street will transform into a vibrant, sensorial corridor of memory and movement.

In response to SNF 2025’s theme of “Island Nights”, the #WaterlooStKakis—Centre 42, Objectifs, P7:1SMA, SMU-ACM, and coordinated by The Theatre Practice—present Waterloo Street Stories, a multidisciplinary celebration of Singapore’s maritime roots and ever-evolving identity. Through photography, dance, performance, audio plays, workshops, and film, the project traces the layered rhythms of a street steeped in heritage, connection, and the stories that shape our sense of place.

The range of programmes includes:

1) Waterloo Street Stories: A Sundried Time Capsule
An outdoor photo exhibition presented by Objectifs 
22 Aug to 6 Sep 2025
Venue: Courtyard, Objectifs

Related events
Collage & Mark-Making Workshop
30 Aug 2025, 7pm – 10pm
Free admission, no registration required

Objectifs presents an outdoor exhibition by emerging visual artist Angelena Ikah, during the Singapore Night Festival 2025. Her work is the culmination of a two-month residency at Objectifs. 

A Sun-Dried Time Capsule is a reflection on the enduring charm of Waterloo Street and its stretch of sun-dry shops known for their dried produce and herbs. These goods resemble time capsules, with traces of history preserved in their shriveled skins and faded hues, shaped slowly by time, sunlight, and care. This series explores the imprint of time on form, space, and human connection; created using silver gelatin printing, each image is shaped by its reaction to different materials, durations, and sunlight exposures. It is both a quiet observation and a tribute to the sun-dried shops of Waterloo Street, and to the subtle forms that emerge when time, environment, and attentiveness converge.

Formerly from the Objectifs Young Photographers’ Mentorship Programme, Angelena will also conduct a workshop on Collage & Mark-Making. In this workshop, she invites participants to turn the every day into the extraordinary, blending the art of collage with the playful technique of mark-making to transform a simple envelope into a personal time capsule. 

Participants will work with a curated set of images to craft a layered visual story, then experiment with natural, sun-dried materials to stamp and press unique textures onto their piece. Walk away with a one-of-a-kind keepsake that captures memories, moments, and a bit of magic.

2) Now Showing: Where There’s Water
An outdoor short film programme presented by Objectifs in collaboration with Japanese film collective GINZAZA

Fri 5 Sep 2025, 7.30pm – 9.30pm 
Venue: Platform, Objectifs
Entry by donation – suggested donation $10 – $15 per pax.
Find out more and RSVP here

Concurrent with the programmes, Objectifs’ next edition of Now Showing. Themed around water, the programme highlights the artistic, playful, and expressive form of short films curated by visionary Japanese film collective GINZAZA. Expect to be immersed in stories that ripple beneath the surface and linger long after the screen fades to black. Following the screening, dive right into the post-screening creative activity and experiment with the art of water marbling – a tactile craft that echoes the themes of fluidity, reflection, and transformation explored in Where There’s Water. Using images from the films, participants can craft patterns on paper using tools like sticks to create a one-of-a-kind artwork, bringing home a physical reminder of the themes from the film programme.

Suitable for all ages and skill levels. Materials will be provided.

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3) Waterloo Street Stories: Sound Plot Audio Plays Series
Presented by Centre 42

Fri 22 Aug 2025, 7pm – 10pm
Sat 23 Aug 2025, 7pm – 10pm
Sat 30 Aug 2025, 7pm – 10pm
Sun 31 Aug 2025, 7pm – 10pm
Fri 5 Sep 2025, 7pm – 10pm
Sat 6 Sept 2025, 7pm – 10pm
Venue: Stamford Arts Centre

Centre 42 started its audio play presentation with the 2023 edition of the Singapore Night Festival, as part of the inaugural Waterloo Street Stories by the #WaterlooStKakis collective.

Since then, C42’s Sound Plot audio plays series have grown to include new audio dramas each year, as creative responses to different sites in Singapore:
Bras Basah Bugis / Central, 2023
Southern-most (Tanjong Pagar district), 2024
West (Jurong), 2025

For Singapore Night Festival 2025, C42 will bring together all 10 produced plays in an on-site installation of listening experiences. This programme will also feature a newly commissioned audio play responding to SNF2025’s theme on “Island Nights”. This curatorial theme will see C42’s Writer-in-Residence exploring Singapore’s archipelagic relationship and histories as an island in South East Asia.

The installation is planned to take place across all three weekends of SNF, subject to space availability and coordination with the performance schedules at 42 Waterloo Street.

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4) Waterloo Street Stories: Fortune Hands
Presented by P7:1SMA

Fri, 22 Aug 2025, 8.30pm – 9.15pm
Sat, 23 Aug 2025, 8.30pm – 9.15pm
Venue: Courtyard, Objectifs

In Fortune Hands, performers bring to life stories of history, faith, and fortune, honoring the vibrant maritime and trade roots that shaped Singapore. Hands—symbols of connection, labor, and exchange—reflect the nation’s identity as a bustling port city, where ships were built, deals were struck, and strangers became friends. But these hands don’t just belong to the past—they remain part of everyday life. Along Waterloo Street, palm readers study open palms, offering quiet insight and a moment of reflection in a fast-moving world.

5) Waterloo Street Stories: Familiar Strangers
Presented by SMU-ACM

An arts-led, community-engaged project about the embedded ecologies and intangible cultural heritage of the denizens of Waterloo Street. Amidst today’s climate of constant change and redevelopment, this project aims to bring to light to older and quieter neighbourhoods like Waterloo Street. In particular, this project aims to capture and celebrate the stories, interrelations and cultural heritage of the varied inhabitants who call Waterloo Street home. This project also hopes to inspire those less familiar with Waterloo Street to contemplate about the strangers in their own lives, and connect with the concept of a ‘familiar stranger’, a stranger who one nonetheless recognises from regular, sustained contact despite not forming a personal relationship.

There are two components:

a) ⁠Outdoor Photo Exhibition
22 Aug to 6 Sep 2025
Venue: Back courtyard of Stamford Arts Centre

Set along the locale of Waterloo Street, this exhibition of staged self-portraits traces the residual presence of a city. During nightfall, the artist photographs himself as a speculative mid-century familiar stranger. The city becomes palimpsest, each image drawing the past into view through quiet acts of embodiment. Moving between visibility and disappearance, the work dwells where memory resists the forward march of development. It questions how a place holds its history, and how that history might be conjured—if only for a moment—before vanishing again.

b) Programme
Fri 22 Aug & Sat 23 Aug 2025, 6pm – 10:30pm
Fri 29 Aug & Sat 30 Aug 2025, 6pm – 10:30pm
Fri 5 Sep & Sat 6 Sep 2025, 6pm – 10:30pm
Venue: Stamford Arts Centre L1 Project Studio

Familiar Strangers is a participatory arts programme exploring the subtle and often overlooked fabric of social connections in our everyday lives. Through the showcasing of the myriad lived experiences of urban sociality embodied within Waterloo Street, a self-guided activity invites everyone to recall the familiar strangers in our lives – individuals we recognise but do not know – and co-create a community installation comprising a mosaic of stories that celebrates the significance of fleeting interactions in our lives. By encouraging dialogue and self-reflection, Familiar Strangers encourages participants to cultivate a heightened appreciation for, and curiosity about, the lives and perspectives of others around us.

Waterloo Street Stories runs from 22nd August to 6th September 2025 at Courtyard, Objectifs and Stamford Arts Centre. More information available here

Singapore Night Festival 2025 – Island Nights runs from 22nd August to 6th September 2025. The festival offers free admission, with select ticketed programmes available for purchase at heritage.sg/sgnightfest.