Somewhere in Admiralty over the weekend, a fish the size of a small bus lit up in the dark, and every single scale on it was decorated by a different resident.
That’s “Big Catch” (钓大鱼), the large-scale fish lantern unveiled at Vista Park, 583 Woodlands Drive 16 on 20 September 2026 as part of PAssionArts Festival 2026. It was co-created by residents with community artists Casey Chen and Esther Ng, both of whom work on participatory art in the heartlands, and its individually decorated scales were wired with LED lights to give the whole thing a slow, dynamic swimming effect once night fell.
The festival ran Mid-Autumn celebrations across 18 neighbourhoods islandwide over the weekend of 19 to 20 September 2026, from Eunos and Kaki Bukit to Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng and Toa Payoh Central. Three of them are worth talking about in detail, and if you only have the patience for one, make it Admiralty’s fish.
Still lit this week: the PAssionArts evenings are done, but Lights by the Lake at Jurong Lake Gardens runs 19 to 27 September 2026, with lantern displays staying up till 4 October 2026. Free. That’s the one you can still walk into.
Why the Fish Works
Plenty of Mid-Autumn installations are built to be photographed. What separates Big Catch is that the photograph contains hundreds of people’s handiwork rather than one artist’s. Each scale is somebody’s afternoon, and the LED lighting turns that patchwork into a single moving body once the sun goes down. That’s the whole argument for community art in one object.
Admiralty’s edition ran 6pm to 9pm at Vista Park, 583 Woodlands Drive 16, with lantern-making, a lion dance and performances filling out the evening around the centrepiece. The fish was the reason to turn up, but the programming around it is what kept families there past the first photo.
Big Catch sits inside a bigger People’s Association push towards oversized heartland art. By the People’s Association’s own account, its Giant Delight 2026 “Neighbourhood Treasures” campaign has involved over 1,500 residents across 17 neighbourhoods since installations began rolling out from 25 July 2026, turning standard structural frames into outsized public works drawn from childhood games, bus stops and familiar local scenes. Admiralty’s fish is that idea with a light rig attached.
Kampong Glam Hit the Streets
On 19 September 2026, Kampong Glam went the opposite way: no single monument, just the whole neighbourhood pressed into service. A carnival-themed Art Village at Zhongshan Park ran from 5.30pm to 8.30pm with hands-on art activities and cultural performances, including Chinese dance and storytelling.
The highlight was the lantern walk that spilled out of the Art Village and into the surrounding streets. A procession through Kampong Glam is a very different proposition from a procession through a park, because the backdrop is already doing half the work. A carnival was part of the draw too, according to a video posted by Little World Little Step, which is the closest thing to a walkthrough if you missed the night.
Slow Threads Is the Sleeper Pick
Here’s the one nobody would guess from the photos. On 20 September 2026, Taman Jurong ran “Slow Threads” at Wave Plaza @ Jurong Lake Gardens, an evening of unhurried art-making, live performances and Mid-Autumn festivities built around residents slowing down rather than queueing up.
The craft list tells you everything about the intent: junk journalling, hand-stitched stress dolls, punch-needle textiles. Not one of those is a five-minute activity you finish and post. They are the kind of tactile, repetitive making that occupies your hands for an hour, which is a genuinely strange and welcome thing to programme into a public festival.
Wave Plaza also hosted NParks’ Mediacorp Lantern Trail on 20 September 2026 from 6pm to 7.30pm, pairing a lantern walk with an outdoor screening of the animated series Lil Wild, within the wider Lights by the Lake programme at Jurong Lake Gardens. That one runs 19 to 27 September 2026, with lantern displays staying up till 4 October 2026, so the lake is still worth a trip this week even though the PAssionArts evenings are done.
The Heartlands Have Done This Before
None of this appeared out of nowhere. PAssionArts has been handing residents the tools rather than the tickets for years now, and the same instinct showed up when DANAMIC spoke to Lynette Quek and Esther Quek about turning kitchen appliances into a culinary symphony at the 2024 festival. The scale has grown; the premise has not changed.
School art clubs have started running these sessions too, with Peicai Secondary School’s Art Club guiding the public through interactive activities and a collaborative installation at PAssionArts Festival 2026. That shift, from student as participant to student as facilitator, is a small thing that matters.
The Details
🏮 Still on this week: Lights by the Lake, Jurong Lake Gardens, 19 to 27 September 2026, lantern displays up till 4 October 2026
🗓️ PAssionArts Mid-Autumn dates (now ended): Saturday, 19 September 2026 and Sunday, 20 September 2026
⏰ Times: Kampong Glam 5.30pm to 8.30pm; Admiralty 6pm to 9pm; Mediacorp Lantern Trail 6pm to 7.30pm (20 September)
📍 Where the three were:
– Admiralty, Vista Park, 583 Woodlands Drive 16
– Kampong Glam, Zhongshan Park
– Taman Jurong, Wave Plaza @ Jurong Lake Gardens
🎨 Highlights: “Big Catch” (钓大鱼) LED fish lantern, lantern walk, Slow Threads craft evening
🏘️ Scale: 18 neighbourhoods islandwide
💰 Entry: Free
🎟️ Booking: None, all of it was walk-in
The weekend’s celebrations have wrapped, but the fish made its case: a public artwork gets more interesting, not less, when hundreds of untrained hands build it. Keep an eye on PAssionArts Festival for the next neighbourhood edition, and if it lands in your estate, decorate a scale. Future you, scrolling past a glowing fish in a friend’s Story, will be glad you’re in it!
Visuals courtesy of PAssionArts Festival.
Read us first on Google: add DANAMIC as a preferred source and our stories show up more in your Top Stories and AI results.
