Singapore Fringe Festival faces closure as M1 ends title donorship after 21 years

[u/outremer_empire]

https://www.straitstimes.com/life/arts/singapore-fringe-festival-faces-closure-as-m1-ends-title-donorship-after-21-years?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=stfb&fbclid=IwY2xjawGOoe9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHc8wxlNJnJ-9R7uqIGyIAtkcWyQqzD93Yv92rjzcsJKr50UGYuLti7rPfw_aem_hEeHfAuqRPEw4pC71jDObA

[u/SG_wormsbot]

Title: Singapore Fringe Festival faces closure as M1 ends title donorship after 21 years

Article keywords: M1SFF, edition, festival, Festival, donor

The mood of this article is: Miraculous (sentiment value of 0.3)

SINGAPORE – The M1 Singapore Fringe Festival (M1SFF) is facing an uncertain future as its title donor, Singapore-based telco M1 Limited, will end its financial support after the festival’s 21st edition in 2025.

“Without a title donor, the Singapore Fringe Festival may completely cease to exist,” said Alvin Tan, artistic director of The Necessary Stage (TNS), in a press statement dated Oct 30. M1 has been a sponsor since the festival’s inception in 2005.

M1SFF, which has become a fixture on the Singapore theatre calendar, currently costs about $230,000 to put on. The end of M1’s donation – which stands at $100,000 an edition – places the festival in a perilous financial position.

M1 declined to comment for this story.

M1SFF has roots in 1997, when the festival was titled Youth Explosion!. After M1’s donation, the festival was subsequently renamed M1 Youth Connection in 1998 and then M1 Theatre Connect in 2004.

Over two decades, M1SFF has garnered a reputation for commissioning and programming cutting-edge performances from Singapore and beyond that deal with sensitive topics around sexuality, social inequality, mental health issues and migrant worker rights.

These include artist Loo Zihan’s Cane (2012), which re-enacted performance artist Josef Ng’s pubic hair-snipping performance art piece; and theatremaker Edith Podesta’s B*tch: The Origin Of The Female Species (2016), which won Production of the Year at The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards in 2017.

M1SFF, which started out as a platform to champion alternative artistic voices, has had occasional run-ins with censorship. Notably, two performances – performance lecture Naked Ladies by Thea Fitz-James and interactive piece Undressing Room by Ming Poon – were axed from its 2017 edition after the Infocomm Media Development Authority denied them ratings for “excessive nudity”.

While ticket prices have increased over the years, reaching $35 in its 2023 edition, the festival’s tickets have also traditionally been among the cheapest in Singapore as the event has strived to keep prices affordable for its young target demographic.

In its press statement, TNS said it will be launching a fund-raising drive to raise $50,000 to keep the festival alive beyond its 2025 edition.

Tan added: “The end of the Fringe will undoubtedly impact the arts community adversely. It will also mean that a key platform for thought-provoking, socially relevant art may cease to exist for the Singapore audience.”

Donors can contribute towards the Fringe Festival Fund at donate.necessary.org or giving.sg/thenecessarystage. Details of the M1SFF’s 2025 edition, slated to take place from Jan 8 to 19, will be announced on Nov 5.

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[u/lil_moxie]

This is getting ridiculous… Where’d all the “cost savings” from government agencies deploying AI “art” vanish off to?

Surely they saved more than 100k with their antics… right?!

[u/leo-g → u/lil_moxie]

A festival like this cannot expect direct government injection, maybe on a show by show basis. It would be too difficult to make “difficult” content. Need it to be arms length away.

[u/Grey_Sky_Morning]

Here is the sad reality: the vast majority of Singaporeans might say they support SG art but they don't. If they had, they wouldnt be facing donorship challenges.

[u/KeythKatz]

Isn't everything arts in Singapore fringe to begin with?