SINGAPORE – The Esplanade’s Pesta Raya – Malay Festival of Arts has become a fixture of Hari Raya festivities after more than two decades.
Its 24th edition, to be held from May 1 to 4, will showcase the best of Malay arts and culture. Besides ticketed shows, there will be free programmes at the arts centre’s various spaces.
Look out for Pesta Pasar, the festival’s biggest outdoor marketplace to date with more than 35 stalls curated from the region in collaboration with Me-You Market.
Here is a closer look at the main attractions, from a landmark theatre production from Cultural Medallion recipient Atin Amat to a celebration of a pop icon’s body of work.
Teater Kami’s Salina travels back to 1950s kampung
Director and playwright Atin Amat has hung on to the set of the 1950s kampung drama Salina for more than 30 years. The set will be reused in the restaging of her adaptation of the Malay-language novel as part of Pesta Raya 2025 – Malay Festival of Arts from May 2 to 4.
Theatregoers who caught Teater Kami’s stagings of Salina in 1993 and 1997 will thus recognise bits of Kampung Kambing (or Goat Village in Malay) at the Singtel Waterfront Theatre. The props will include trinkets the Cultural Medallion recipient salvaged from the bygone Sungei Road Thieves Market and a tempayan (stoneware jar) from her old kampung home.
In Salina, the story’s titular protagonist fights to survive in the aftermath of the Japanese Occupation in Singapore. Forced to become a sex worker while supporting her unemployed lover, Salina lives in a squatter village converted from a goat pen where “the walls are thin and the roofs are leaky”, a setting Atin has tried to recreate faithfully.
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Malaysian songwriter Habsah Hassan started her music career in Singapore
It is apt that the first concert dedicated to the songs of Malaysian songwriter Habsah Hassan, who has written lyrics to more than 1,000 songs sung by stars such as Siti Nurhaliza, will be held in Singapore.
Held at the Esplanade Concert Hall on May 2, Dari Sudut Hati, Habsah Hassan (From The Heart Of Habsah Hassan) features Malay pop veterans and her frequent collaborators, such as Jamal Abdillah, Rahimah Rahim and Salamiah Hassan, singing the hits Habsah wrote in the last five decades.
“I’m very moved by the fact there will be a concert of my songs held in Singapore, because that was where I started writing,” the 75-year-old tells The Straits Times in a recent Zoom interview from her home in Kuala Lumpur.
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Hafidz Rahman goes beyond comedy with one-man show about Bollywood obsession
Singaporean social media personality and performer Hafidz Rahman is best known for skits in which he plays characters such as Bonda Bedah, the middle-aged Malay woman with an acid tongue.
For his next live performance, a monologue titled My Name Is (Not) Khan, he will debut a new character – Harith, a Malay man obsessed with all things Bollywood.
Despite his reputation for comedy, Hafidz says the audiences should not go into the performance, which is staged in English, and expect a stand-up show.
“It’s a very fun show, but it is not a stand-up comedy set,” he tells The Straits Times, adding that the performances explore themes of Bollywood, race, microaggressions, meritocracy and racism.
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Indonesian choreographer Hartati revisits history
The last time Indonesian choreographer Hartati, 59, was in Singapore, it was for the grand opening of the Esplanade in 2002.
She was the choreographer for the then-Singapore Dance Theatre’s Reminiscing The Moon, which was directed by celebrated Indonesian dancer Boi G. Sakti for the opening festival.
“It was fascinating,” Hartati, who goes by only one name, says of the project. “I took my three-year-old daughter to stay in Singapore for 1½ months with the team.”
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Correction note: In an earlier version of the story, we said that Pesta Raya is on from May 9 to 12. This is wrong. It should be from May 1 to 4.
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