ABOUT
TRUE COLORS FESTIVAL
TCF is a long-running international festival of performing arts that celebrates diversity and inclusion. It is presented by The Nippon Foundation.
In 2018, the first international edition of True Colours took place in Singapore. Presented by The Nippon Foundation and UNESCO, it drew an audience of 10,000, who watched some 200 performers from 15 countries in a live concert.
The accompanying Festival Village included – for the first time at a single event here – more than 20 disability-related organisations in Singapore which engaged in novel awareness-building activities with festival goers. The free entry Village also included LIVE performances, workshops, panel discussions, film screenings and an inclusive theatre production.
During the COVID-19 years, TCF created an extensive slate of online, video and hybrid content, including two international online film festivals, two critically acclaimed documentaries and two original music videos, all celebrating the many facets of diversity and inclusion.
In 2022, TCF culminated in THE CONCERT, a LIVE and LIVE streamed global event held in Tokyo. It featured more than 90 performers from 12 countries and was headlined by mega-pop star Katy Perry.
To date, TCF has touched a global audience of more than 3.5 million.
Past Events
BORDERLANDS
Dance as Conversation and Connection is an original three-act dance performance that unites artists from Singapore, Cambodia, and Indonesia through traditional, contemporary, and street dance. Centred around the Cambodian krama—a powerful symbol of identity, resilience, and community—the performance explores shared humanity, cultural exchange, and transformation.
Led by Artistic Director Shahrin Johry with Choreographic Collaborator and Vocalist Gigi Gianti, BorderLands brings together a dynamic ensemble of innovative performers in a visually captivating celebration of connection across cultures.
Dancers:
Shahrin Johry, Gigi Gianti, Shruthi Nair, Jack Lim, Alton Tian, Kim Socheat, Arif Setyo Budi, Eve Tan, Tung Ka Wai, Weng Jia Ying, Lay Sann
Set to original music by Azrin Abdullah.
COLONY – A True Colors Project
COLONY – A True Colors Project is a powerful multidisciplinary dance production that brings together performers from Southeast Asia and Japan to explore identity, belonging, and human connection.
Blending dance, music, movement, and film, the performance follows a deeply personal journey as artists confront prejudice, expectations, and their own limitations.
Through striking choreography and behind-the-scenes footage, COLONY offers an intimate look at the creative process, celebrating the strength that emerges when differences unite.
True Colors Festival
THE CONCERT 2022
THE CONCERT 2022 was a stunning multimedia experience that featured an international line-up of diverse singers, dancers and musicians from around the world.
More than 20 groups and soloists from 13 countries, performing on a single stage. Stellar performances, powerful moments of connection and original film content – a first-of-its-kind concert experience.
A celebration of beautiful diversity, THE CONCERT 2022 shone the spotlight on the uniqueness of each artist while celebrating the things that connect us as humans.
True Colors
Film Festival 2021
The theme Perspectives honors these shifting times and invites us to sit with our discomfort and re-examine our comforts in the pandemic years. Chance encounters that changed lives, the concept of heaven, life journeys with autism, historic inclusivity and more. These stories about inclusion, diversity, hope, empowerment and human connection mark a quiet revolution of voices changing the way we perceive our differences and our similarities.
This Is Hip-Hop 2020
This no-holds-barred online discussion featuring 9 hip-hop innovators from diverse backgrounds who have found their voices, their souls, and their liberation in hip-hop. These artists from the UK, Indonesia, Canada, Singapore, the US and Japan get real! led spirited exchanges about cultural appropriation, diversity and inclusivity. They explored hip-hop's image problems, set against its significance as a contemporary agent of social change. To cap the discussion, the international virtual audience were treated to a hip-hop performance by 20 dancers from 4 cities, freestyling to music by Singapore-based artist, Wheelsmith.
True Colors
Film Festival 2020
A free online film festival reflecting the “One World, One Family” theme and the universal experiences of connection, diversity, hope, dreams and transformation. 18 award-winning short films, documentaries and post-screening dialogues by talented filmmakers from Asia and beyond.
True Colors
Film Festival 2018
A celebration of all the senses, the festival brought together some of the world’s foremost artistes with disabilities in a multi-faceted celebration of talent. This inaugural Asia Pacific festival of music, dance and the arts featured an international conference, an outdoor festival of inclusion, community outreach activities, and a unique, world-class indoor multimedia concert experience.
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