Singapore in September: Baybeats, candlelight and a stadium show

September in Singapore starts with two festivals overlapping and ends with a stadium show, and the best of it costs nothing.

The Singapore Night Festival runs until 5 September across the Bras Basah.Bugis precinct, this year under the theme Myths and Legends. It has been going since 21 August, which means the closing weekend is the crowded one — if you have not been yet, go on a weeknight.

Baybeats takes over the Esplanade from 3 to 6 September for its twenty-fifth edition: 47 bands, five stages, four days, and free entry throughout. Twenty-five years makes it the country's longest-running alternative music festival, and the free-entry model is the reason it has been the first stage for a generation of Singaporean bands. Arrive earlier than the headline set; the discoveries are on the smaller stages in the afternoon.

The Arts House runs two Candlelight concerts this month — Vivaldi's Four Seasons on 11 September at 9pm, and an Ed Sheeran and Coldplay programme on 20 September at 8pm. Both are string-quartet arrangements by candlelight in a room that suits them.

On 12 September the Singapore Symphony Orchestra brings the President's Young Performers Concert back to the Victoria Concert Hall, giving emerging classical musicians a full orchestra behind them. It is one of the few chances in the year to hear players at the start of their careers in a hall that size.

The month's biggest ticket is The Weeknd at the National Stadium on 25 September, with Japanese hip-hop duo Creepy Nuts opening — a set drawing across Starboy, After Hours, Dawn FM and Hurry Up Tomorrow. Stadium shows here empty onto the Kallang MRT platform all at once; budget an extra forty minutes at the end of the night or walk to Stadium station's neighbours.

Everything above is on our events page with links to the official listings. Ticketed shows move dates more often than free ones — check before you travel.