Sake Matsuri Southeast Asia’s Largest Sake Festival Heads To Marina Bay Sands For 13th Edition With Japan HopFest Craft Beer Fair Running In Parallel

Guests can choose one 3-hour session and taste freely across the hall, then take home a Sake Matsuri tasting glass. Bottles are sold on the day at festival prices.

Notable Sakes this year include:

Shirayuki Sake of Edo Genroku Era
Konishi Brewing, Hyogo

An amber, aged junmai recreated from the Konishi family’s brewing records of the Genroku era (1688–1704). Brewed with half the water of modern sake, it is rich and velvety, with a finish of nuts and figs, and won Platinum at the Milano Sake Challenge 2022.

Ryusei NAGOMI NEXT Prototype-01
Fujii Shuzo, Hiroshima

A prototype from the brewery’s Lab. Works. series that takes its regular NAGOMI a step further. Kimoto-brewed from lightly polished Hattan Nishiki rice using the Shingin polishing method, it is soft and mellow with full rice umami, then finishes clean and dry.

haccoba zairai [sea]
haccoba, Fukushima

A botanical craft sake brewed with the Japanese rose that grows along Fukushima’s sandy coast,
with lychee and rose over a sweet-tart, lightly saline finish.

For the second edition of Japan Hopfest, eleven breweries will take part: five from Japan and six from Singapore.

From Japan: Isekado Brewery (Ise, Mie), Totopia Brewery (Nagakute, Aichi), Uchu Brewing (Hokuto, Yamanashi), Vertere (Okutama, Tokyo) and West Coast Brewing (Mochimune, Shizuoka)

From Singapore: AsaBrew, Lion Brewery Co, Off Day Beer Company, People People Brewing Co, Ren Min and Sunbird

Saturday night festivities extend late as the beer hall remains open until midnight. Every ticket includes an initial festival beer, with additional pours available via token purchase. On-site food stations will serve until 10 PM on Saturday and 8 PM on Sunday.

There will also be a collaborative creation between Singapore’s People People Brewing Co. and Shizuoka’s West Coast Brewing. A West Coast Pilsner, the expression was brewed with freshly harvested 2026 Citra, Mosaic, and Krush hops.

Flash-frozen at harvest and shipped directly by Yakima Chief Hops, the ingredients yield a crisp, lean 5.0% ABV pilsner bursting with tropical fruit, bright citrus, and pine upfront, finishing with a snappy, dry bite. The exclusive brew will be available on tap at the Japan HopFest festival bar.

As per last year, there will also be other programmes that will add to the allure of Sake Matsuri.

Matsuri Vintage Market: returning after launching in March, this free-entry forecourt brings together vintage, craft and record stalls. Open 11am–7pm both days; no ticket needed.

Food: AhMah’s Legacy, Bump Cart’s caviar and uni bumps, Cheese Lads, Fatt Choy Laksa Bar, Little Olde Cow (dry-aged beef tsukune and wet-aged salt beef sliders from the folks behind Ye Olde Cow), The Oyster Cart and Ritch’s Lechon, in the free-entry forecourt; no ticket needed.

Live entertainment: on both days, Yosakoi Shisai performs the high-energy Japanese festival dance; DJs Itch, Hiddy and Minimal Simplicity play through the afternoon and evening; and Stella Wong and friends from Singapore’s kendo community give a kendo performance. Stella, a former president of the Singapore Kendo Club, won bronze in the women’s individual open category at the inaugural Asia-Oceania Kendo Championships in May 2026, the first Singaporean on that podium.

Yukata experience: Kimono Salon Seqya dresses guests in yukata for photos at the festival photo booth, or to wear around the festival for an hour. Book on the spot. Collab merch: Sake Matsuri has teamed up with Ageless Galaxy, the Jakarta lifestyle brand inspired by outer space exploration, on an exclusive T-shirt, pins and stickers. Sold only at the festival.

Braveheart Sake Originals will also debut five premium premixed cocktails engineered to elevate sake's delicate aromatic profile rather than cover it up. The inventive menu highlights bold flavor contrasts, including Wild & Free, a complex fusion of sake, Japanese whisky, and smoky peated Scotch; Tiki Nishi, which pairs bright yuzu sake with earthy mezcal; and Temptation, a luxurious blend combining creamy nigori sake with rich pistachio and dark chocolate. 

88 Bamboo Editorial Team