vOilah! France Singapore Festival 2026 is in full swing through to 20 June, and May is its biggest month — concerts, dance, theatre and three free art exhibitions, all packed into the next two weekends. Below is our handpicked guide to the highlights of vOilah! 2026 Singapore, plus what to know before you book.
Organised by the Embassy of France in Singapore and presented with 21 cultural partners, vOilah! 2026 spans 26 programmes — a passport-free way to experience French art de vivre without leaving the island. Here are nine programmes worth blocking out a weekend for.
Music — Three Concerts In May Worth Crossing Town For
Red Dot Baroque: The Wonder Chamber — Saturday, 9 May
Red Dot Baroque welcomes internationally-acclaimed French-Canadian harpsichordist Olivier Fortin for his Singapore debut. The intimate chamber programme draws on the 17th-century European tradition of the Wunderkammer — wonder rooms filled with curious objects and instruments — with Singapore premieres of works by Biber, Bertali and Rosenmüller. Two shows: 3pm and 5:30pm at The Arts House Chamber. Tickets from S$20.
An Evening Soirée with Quatuor Elmire — Thursday, 14 May
Founded in 2017 and now resident at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, Quatuor Elmire has worked with members of the Modigliani and Ébène Quartets. The Paris quartet — David Petrlik and Yoan Brakha on violins, Hortense Fourrier on viola, Rémi Carlon on cello — make their Singapore debut with a programme of French chamber music featuring Debussy’s string quartet. 8pm at Esplanade Recital Studio. Tickets from S$37.80.
Hans Graf Farewell Series: Mystère de l’Instant — Friday, 15 May
The SSO’s farewell programme for Music Director Hans Graf goes deep on French repertoire — Dutilleux’s prismatic Mystère de l’instant, Poulenc’s vivacious Sinfonietta, Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Ravel’s Tzigane and Milhaud’s Scaramouche. Soloists violinist He Ziyu and Singaporean saxophonist Samuel Phua join Graf on stage. 7:30pm at Victoria Concert Hall. Tickets from S$15 (SG Culture Pass eligible).
Dance And Theatre — Two Big SIFA-Adjacent Shows
LACRIMA — 15 to 17 May
Caroline Guiela Nguyen turns the stage into a working couture atelier in this sprawling, multi-continent play about the hands behind a single royal wedding dress. From a Parisian fashion house to an Alençon lacemaker to an embroiderer in Mumbai, LACRIMA traces eight months of intricate, anonymous labour. Part of Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) 2026. Various timings at Singtel Waterfront Theatre at Esplanade. Tickets from S$48. Advisory 16 (mature content and coarse language).
Danses de Rêve — 16 to 17 May
Singapore Ballet makes its vOilah! debut with an evening of new and curated works, building on a partnership with Alliance Française Singapour that began in 2021. The bill features a new piece by French-born choreographer Claire Voss, plus a restaging of Singular by former Singapore Ballet Principal Étienne Ferrère for a larger audience. Various timings at Alliance Française de Singapour. Tickets from S$40 (SG Culture Pass eligible).
Free Visual Art Exhibitions — Catch Them Before They Close
Still Lives, After Life by Ugo Li — Till Saturday, 9 May
Ugo Li’s still-life paintings approach the genre as an “after” — tables once meals have ended, vases when flowers are gone. The work is observed with restraint, neither idealised nor sentimentalised. Catch the closing days at Richard Koh Fine Art, open Tuesdays to Saturdays, 11am-7pm. Free admission.
Le Grand Tour, From European Legacy to Global Passage — Till Sunday, 17 May
Reimagining the 17th to 19th-century Grand Tour from Singapore’s vantage point, this group show by Nicolas Lefeuvre, Séverine de la Chapelle, Emi Avora and Hélène Le Chatelier focuses on what lingers — sensation, material and myth — rather than fixed places. JW Projects, free admission during gallery opening hours.
Ziad Dalloul: Only Light Has No Shadow — Till Saturday, 23 May
The Syrian-French artist’s first Southeast Asia exhibition gathers paintings from the past five years alongside engraving and archival materials. Across decades, Dalloul has displaced four archetypal forms — bed, chair, table, curtain — into wild landscapes, each a meditation on absence and continuity. Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, free admission.
RÉVOLUTION! A Fools’ Dialogue — Till Saturday, 23 May
Twenty Singapore outsider artists each respond to a work by a revolutionary French master. The result is a riff-raff dialogue between a young scene and an established canon, equal parts homage and cheek. La Galerie, Alliance Française de Singapour, free admission.
How To Plan The vOilah! 2026 Weekend
The full festival runs to 20 June 2026, with 26 programmes overall. The most-booked weekend is 15 to 17 May, where Quatuor Elmire (14 May), Hans Graf at Victoria Concert Hall (15 May), LACRIMA at Esplanade (15-17 May) and Singapore Ballet at Alliance Française (16-17 May) all overlap. Add the closing days of the three free exhibitions and it adds up to a long French art weekend without leaving Singapore.
The full programme, ticketing and accessibility info is on the vOilah! Singapore website. For more background on the festival’s opening weekend in April, see our earlier vOilah! 2026 launch piece.
Looking for what else is on this month? Our Things to Do in Singapore This May 2026 roundup covers SIFA, Laufey, Daniel Caesar and more, and our best things to do this weekend picks always flag what’s new in town.
Article based on a media release from Tate Anzur on behalf of vOilah! 2026 / Embassy of France in Singapore. Images via vOilah!’s official festival site.
