This is a blog version of my video guide on YouTube:

Hello Adventurer,

Once a year, Singapore throws a huge birthday celebration that’s locally known as the The National Day Parade or in short: NDP.

Apart from spectacular stunts, shiny armor columns, festive music, and dancing. A huge charm of the parade is the FIREWORKS… Can you believe that ALL of these are FREE to watch?

The crowd in AWE watching the Fireworks

In this post, I’ll show you WHEN to visit to have the BEST experience in Singapore. Let’s begin!

When To Come

The Parade itself takes place on the 9th of August which is Singapore’s National day… AND only local residents can get a ticket to the parade.

HOWEVER, you can actually watch the fireworks many weeks before the actual celebration AND without needing a ticket.

NDP is a serious yearly affair in Singapore. Because of the MASSIVE scale of the celebration, there are always multiple counts of REHEARSALS. Which is GOOD for us because in each of these rehearsals the fireworks also goes off, giving us more opportunities to catch a glimpse. THOUGH from what i’ve heard, the sparks in the earlier rehearsals might be less intense.

Looking at the dates of the rehearsals in the past years: The rehearsals run every weekend from the middle of June up till the actual day of celebration. They run MOSTLY on Saturday evenings, BUT to be sure, look up the official NDP website to get the schedule because on SOME occasion it may run on a Sunday.

My cheat code is to look out for the Traffic Advisories by the LTA. They ALWAYS issue this in advance because NDP rehearsals ALWAYS disrupt traffic.

The peak of the firework display usually occurs around 8pm but the free firework Is very popular among the locals so you might want to be here earlier. Some of them even picnic and camp at viewing spots from all the way in the morning just to secure their seat.

Update, EXPECTED dates for 2025:

14 Jun 2025
21 Jun 2025
28 Jun 2025
5 Jul 2025
12 Jul 2025
19 Jul 2025
26 Jul 2025 (Preview 1)
2 Aug 2025 (Preview 2)
9 Aug 2025 (Actual Day)

Where To Go?

So where should you go to catch the fireworks? Well, The sky is the limit.

The epicenter of the pyromancy is at the Marina Bay, right infront of the Marina Bay Sands. It’s this building that looks like a Cruise Ship held up by 3 towers.

The fireworks will shoot out of those thingys in the middle of the bay.
So technically all the surrounding areas in view of the sky above the bay are good for watching the fireworks.

The downside of FREE things is the crowd… BUT you can AVOID bustling with everyone and even be in COMFORT of your own private room….
by booking a hotel in the area for the night.

and even your own BATH TUB

Can you imagine the view from MBS itself??

However, REMEMBER TO BOOK THE HOTEL FACING MARINA BAY. A local blog ( The Smart Local) has kindly done comparisons on the hotel prices here:

The prices are not pretty, so if you’d like to stick to more economical options: Just pick a spot around the Marina Bay.
Personally I like the view from Merlion park with MBS in the background.
When in doubt, just look for the photographers, most of the time they know where to get the best angles.

The FREE and viable area

What to Expect

Starting from around 7:30PM, singular blasts would be fired. However, the real blasts would only start around 8:10PM.

If you would like to watch the whole debacle in 4K UHD, check out my video on YouTube.

It’s definitely much more impressive in person so I highly recommend coming here yourself. If you want to see more of Singapore check out my other travel guides here!

I’ll see you there