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The weekend guide · Fri 13 – Sun 15 November

Free things to do in Singapore this weekend: 13–15 November

5 of the 18 picks in this weekend’s guide are free.

They are in the order we’d recommend them, each with its times, price and how to get there.

Dancers in red baju kurung and black songkok with arms raised mid-routine on stage at the Muara Festival, from Esplanade's photos
Fri–Sun · 7.30pm and 9.15pm · free

Muara Festival at the Esplanade

Marina Bay

Three nights of free Malay dance by the bay, and then it is gone until next year. Groups from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia dance to live musicians, which Esplanade says hasn't happened since 2022; Saturday night is all zapin. On the Concourse at 6.30pm and 8pm, a shorter set invites the audience to join in. With small children, go in the afternoon instead: Saturday's 3pm regional competition or Sunday's 2.30pm schools showcase. The main shows are on the open-air Outdoor Theatre, so check the sky first.

Free; the Sat and Sun 11am dance workshops need registrationEsplanade MRTOfficial site
Good for families, couples, friends, solo
Children steering remote-control diggers and trucks over a sand pit with a log bridge at the Defence Collective Festival's Bridge Building activity, from the organiser's photos
Sat & Sun · 10am–6pm · free entry

Defence Collective Festival

Jurong

A once-a-year, two-day festival at three defence museums, and the Singapore Discovery Centre leg is the one for primary-school children: a casualty relay, bridge building, a signal relay, a mini tactical challenge and SDCity, a play town for under-12s, all free, with school groups on stage both days. Entry is free but you register online first, so do it before you leave home. The optional S$10 passport adds target-lane shooting, gel blasters and drone flying, and works at all three museums. Under-5s must stay with an adult. The free shuttle from Jurong Point runs hourly; arrive by noon to get round it all.

Free with online registration; optional passport S$10Boon Lay MRTBook tickets
Good for families, friends
Portrait of the writer Amitav Ghosh, whose Singapore Writers Festival 2026 keynote on Saturday 14 November is sold out
Fri–Sun · free hub from Fri 7pm · Stephen Witt Fri 7.30pm

Writers Festival opening weekend

Civic District

The festival opens on Friday, and a good part of it costs nothing. The Arts House is the free hub: a family Playground built round a mystery of missing library books, a stolen-diamond case whose endings were written by students, and installations, open 10am to 10pm at the weekend (a few of the free sessions inside it are already full). Of the two opening keynotes at Victoria Theatre, Stephen Witt on Nvidia on Friday at 7.30pm (S$25) is still on sale; Amitav Ghosh's on Saturday has sold out. The S$30 Festival Pass is separate: it covers more than 100 smaller sessions, first come, first served.

Free hub (some free sessions need registration, and some are full); Stephen Witt keynote S$25; Festival Pass S$30, Youth Pass S$15City Hall MRTBook tickets
Good for families, couples, friends, solo
Blue and green light and cloud drifting through the Supertree Grove at night during Borealis, from Gardens by the Bay's own photos
Sat & Sun · 8pm · free

Borealis at the Supertrees

Marina Bay

Free northern lights over the Supertrees for half an hour at 8pm on Saturday and Sunday (there's no Friday show). From 27 November it moves to 9.05pm for the festive season, so this is one of the last weekends to catch it before a child's bedtime. It's cancelled if it rains during the show; if the sky holds, cross the bay afterwards for Muara's 9.15pm dance at the Esplanade.

FreeBayfront MRTOfficial site
Good for families, couples, friends, solo
Tanglin Mall's promotional image for its Weekend Christmas Market, a grid of products from the stallholders: candles, ornaments, biscuits and crafts
Fri–Sun · Lil'preneurs Sat & Sun 11am–8pm · snow from Sat

Tanglin Mall's children's Christmas market

Orchard

Tanglin Mall's Christmas opens this weekend, and the unusual part runs on Saturday and Sunday only: the Lil'preneurs Market, where children aged 4 to 12 run their own stalls of handmade festive gifts in the Level 1 atrium (the stalls are fully booked, so this one is for shoppers). Outside there's a weekend market of small makers, a token-run carnival with a bouncy castle and a train, and, from Saturday, foam at 7.30pm and 8.30pm with artificial snow 15 minutes later, at 7.45pm and 8.45pm. Free to browse; tokens are the only cost.

Free; carnival tokens from S$20 for 8Orchard Boulevard MRTOfficial site
Good for families, solo

Coming up next weekend

These come from the full weekend guide, all 18 picks. For any day of the week, see what’s on today and free things to do all year.