Enabling Lives Festival 2026: a family guide to the free inclusion festival at Redhill

The Enabling Lives Festival 2026 runs on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 November at Enabling Village in Redhill, with a smaller prelude day at Queenstown Sport Centre on Saturday 21 November. SG Enable, the national agency for disability and inclusion, puts it on each year for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, and 2026 is its sixth edition. Most of its 70-plus programmes are free, and the organisers have tagged about 30 of them as kid-friendly, from a sensory forest show for three- to five-year-olds to a family swim in a heated pool.

You don't need a child with a disability to go. The festival is open to everyone, and plenty of the sessions are just good fun for small kids: storytime, an obstacle course, a dance class, music in the lobby. A few teach children what it's like to move through the world with a disability, which is easier to show a five-year-old than to explain.

We took every date, time and price here from the festival's own site and the Enabling Village site on 5 November 2026. Programmes can change or fill up, so check the festival programme page the week before you go.

Enabling Lives Festival dates, venues and prices

The festival is spread over two weekends and four sites. Here's the shape of it.

The best picks for babies, toddlers and preschoolers

These are the sessions we'd plan a morning around with a child under six, and every one of them is at Enabling Village on the main weekend.

Humuan, a sensory forest adventure by The Artground is the one to book first. Children touch textured leaves, smell scents, spot an owl and help a kingfisher look after her eggs, with live music and performers who pull the kids in. It's recommended for children aged three to five, and for anyone with a developmental age of about three to five. Shows are at 10.30am, 2pm and 4pm on both days in the Caregivers Pod at the UOB Ability Hub. It's free, but you register, and each child-and-caregiver pair pays a $10 deposit that you get back.

The Inclusive Family Swim at Little Splashes Aquatics (#01-13, Canopy) runs 15-minute sessions from 10am to 6pm on both days. Expect sensory games, floating toys and light exercises in a heated indoor pool, plus a free family photobooth. It's walk-in, so pack swimwear and a towel and take your turn.

For a gentler start, the Children's Book Reading at Mad Roaster's Slow Bar (#01-20, Outpost) has three half-hour storytimes on Saturday 28 November, starting at 10am, 10.30am and 11am, and you can walk in to any of them. On the same Saturday, InSchool (#01-09, Canopy) sets up Circuit Run!, an obstacle course for children that is built with neurodivergent kids in mind. You can jump, stretch and climb through it any time from 10am to 5pm.

Be Kind SG (#01-11, Canopy) charges $5 a child on 28 November to build a tactile brick fidget button, then lets kids stay for open play in a room full of toys. Sessions start at 10am, 11.30am, 2pm, 3.30pm and 5pm, and you pay on the spot.

Sessions that school-age kids will want to try

Kids of six and up tend to get the most out of the hands-on sport, and out of the sessions that let them see the world the way someone with a disability might, because they can ask the questions that come up.

• Rolypoly Family's community dance class at Delta Sport Centre, 11am and 12pm on both days. It is free with a $10 refundable deposit per participant, and you register first.
• The Para-Fencing Play Zone on the Terrace at the Playground block, 10am to 6pm on both days, where kids aim a soft light sabre at hanging tennis-ball targets, and they can do it on their feet or from a chair.
• Everybody's Book Club at the Grandstand in the Nest block on 28 November at 12pm and 4pm, with stories, games and special glasses that show how different eye conditions change what you see.
• Taiko4Stars, a free taiko drumming workshop for children and youth with special needs, runs on 28 November at 10am, 11.30am and 2pm, and you book a slot before you come.
• CaringSG runs a free bookmark session on both days from 11am, where kids who signed up beforehand make one out of pipe cleaners and beads.
• Tak Takut Kids Club at Block 59 Lengkok Bahru on 28 November from 2pm to 6pm, where children from the neighbourhood help visitors build a giant squishy artwork.

Music fills the Lobby Hall in the Vista block at midday on both days. The Purple Symphony, an orchestra of more than 100 musicians with and without disabilities, plays at 11am. Songs of Diversity II, with original songs by musicians with disabilities, follows at 12pm, and Faith Music Centre's bands play pop hits you can sing along to at 1.30pm. All three are free walk-ins, and a lobby is an easy place to sit with a baby who might fuss.

What happens at the prelude on 21 November

The Saturday before the main weekend is smaller and centred on sport. It's held at the newly opened Queenstown Sport Centre, 473 Stirling Road, and every session we found is free.

Children can drop in on the Activity Zone from 10am to 2pm. Student ambassadors from Gan Eng Seng Primary School built it with DesignSingapore Council, and visitors try the prototypes and ideas the students came up with. Blind football tasters run in half-hour slots from 10am to 12pm on the rugby field, and you can walk in. An inclusive K-Kardio class, a dance workout to K-pop, starts at 10am. The mixed fencing challenge runs all day from 10am to 4pm and needs pre-registration, so most families will watch rather than join.

Registration, deposits and what costs money

Each programme page says whether it's walk-in or needs registration, and the free ones that need registration have a Register button on that page. The popular children's sessions are capped, so register as soon as you know your day.

The paid workshops at Enabling Village include a paper flower bouquet at $12, the Flowerscape flower arranging session at $20 ($10 for persons with disabilities) and an art jam with rescue cats at $48. Porcelain bento plates cost $62 and batik on wood starts at $85. Pay at the door for the walk-in ones. The batik and porcelain sessions sell tickets online through a Purchase Ticket button on their pages, so a child set on making something to take home is better booked ahead.

On Saturday night, Movies Under the Stars shows Freakier Friday at 7.30pm on the Terrace, free with registration. It's rated PG13, so leave the little ones at home, though older kids, your own picnic and even the family dog are all welcome.

Getting to Enabling Village by MRT, bus and shuttle

Enabling Village is at 20 Lengkok Bahru, Singapore 159053, a five-minute walk from Redhill MRT station. The pedestrian entrances are on Lengkok Bahru and Redhill Road, and every entrance is wheelchair accessible.

During the festival, a free shuttle bus runs every 30 minutes and links Redhill MRT (Exit A), Enabling Village (Nest block) and the entrance of Delta Sport Centre, 900 Tiong Bahru Road. Visitors with mobility needs board first, so if you have a pram and a walker, let the shuttle go to those who need it most.

Bus 139 stops right outside the village (stop 10431, or 10439 across the road), and bus 63 stops at Block 72. Many more services stop at Bukit Merah Secondary School, including the 14, 123, 147, 196 and 197. If you drive, the car entrance is on Lengkok Bahru, with wheelchair-friendly parking lots inside and more nearby.

Strollers, toilets and quiet spaces

A stroller goes wherever a wheelchair can here. Enabling Village says all its public areas and toilets are fully wheelchair accessible, the multi-storey blocks have lifts, and the Enable Lane is a textured, barrier-free path that leads you through the village. For the festival, the organisers add calm rooms, volunteer guides and the shuttle. Neither the festival nor the village site lists a nursing room, so plan feeds around that.

Where to eat at the village

Enabling Village has eight food and drink tenants, so you won't need to leave for lunch. AMGD Superfood Restaurant (#01-10, Canopy) serves halal dishes and gives 5% off dine-in meals during the festival. Bailey and Patch Pet Cafe (#01-17, Canopy) adds a free iced Ribena to every rice or noodle meal, and its festival goodie bag has a $3 voucher for a $10 spend. Mad Roaster's Slow Bar has alfresco seating facing the green, and Samsui Kitchen, Eat Talk, Foreword Coffee, Postboy Coffee and The Art Faculty are also on site.

If it rains on the day

Most of the children's picks above are indoors: the family swim, Humuan, Circuit Run!, the dance class at Delta Sport Centre and the music in the Lobby Hall. The ones that are outside are the storytime at Mad Roaster's Slow Bar, the sessions near Redhill MRT and the Saturday movie on the Terrace. The festival pages give no wet-weather plan, so keep an indoor session in your back pocket.

More ideas for the same weekend

If the festival sparks questions about classes for your own child, our guide to enrichment for special needs children lists programmes that run all year. The Tiong Bahru family guide covers the neighbourhood next door, and What's On for families has everything else on in Singapore this month.

Frequently asked questions

When is the Enabling Lives Festival on this year, and where?

The main weekend is Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 November 2026 at Enabling Village, 20 Lengkok Bahru, with sessions at Delta Sport Centre and near Redhill MRT. A prelude day takes place at Queenstown Sport Centre on Saturday 21 November.

Is the festival free to attend?

Entry is free and most programmes are free. A few workshops charge from $5 to $85, and two children's sessions take a $10 deposit that is refunded.

Is it suitable for toddlers and preschoolers?

Yes. The organisers tag about 30 programmes as kid-friendly. Humuan, the sensory forest show, is recommended for ages three to five, and the family swim, storytime and Circuit Run! all suit small children.

Do we need to register for the children's sessions?

Some sessions need it. Humuan, the Rolypoly dance class, Taiko4Stars and the bookmark session need registration, while the family swim, storytime and Circuit Run! take walk-ins.

How do we get there by public transport?

Take the MRT to Redhill station and walk five minutes, or catch the free festival shuttle from Exit A. Bus 139 stops right outside Enabling Village.