Did you know that 90% of the KL Festival’s programme is free and open to the public? Through curated, community-led programming, the festival, which runs from May 6-31, is set to transform downtown Kuala Lumpur’s heritage buildings, streets and public spaces into an inclusive, family-friendly celebration of art, culture and shared civic life.
The festival’s theme, “Memory and Tomorrow,” runs through a line-up of free activities, shows, walks and experiences that invite visitors to take part in its programme.
While admission is free, some sessions require pre-registration due to limited capacity. Plan your festival (26 days!) without dipping into your wallet. Do check the KL Festival website and social media pages for the latest updates.
Spill The Ink!
You can’t really have a KL Festival without book lovers, can you?
A “pocket literary festival” – Spill The Ink! – will take place at Muzium Telekom on Jalan Raja Chulan on May 9, running from 10am to 6pm. It brings together book launches, talks and readings featuring PEN Malaysia, Pusaka and IMAN Publication.
The “Hidup Yang Derhaka” literary rewind revisits the reprint of pioneer writer Shamsuddin Salleh’s works (five stories, including Hidup Yang Derhaka) from the 1930s – recognised as some of the earliest Bahasa Malaysia fiction.
“Goddesses, Demons and She Heroes” is a session marking the launch of Kali In Conversation, a poetry collection by Mahi Ramakrishnan.
The introduction of Yellow, a new regional literary magazine, takes place in a session presented by Pusaka creative director Pauline Fan in conversation with Vietnamese-Australian journalist Minh Bui Jones.
So you think you can Jogeton?
No festival feels quite complete without a test of stamina thrown into the mix.
Enter Jogeton – the first-ever joget dance marathon competition – where up to 200 participants are invited to keep the traditional joget going for a continuous 90 minutes.
Those still standing at the end stand a chance to win cash prizes of up to RM3,000.
Even if you’re not competing, the public is welcome to drop by and join in the atmosphere. Jogeton takes place at Dataran Merdeka on May 9, starting from 5pm.
'Museum of Disappearance'
Transforming Petaling Street into an open-air museum, the Museum of Disappearance asks: “Who holds the authority to define meaning in a city?” The exhibits encourage both residents and visitors to reconnect with their environment and reflect on ongoing change, fostering a deeper awareness of local history and memory.
The collection, put together by mystery artist OOOH, presents a total of 25 artworks dispersed throughout the streets and alleyways of Petaling Street. The exact locations of the works will not be revealed in advance. Visitors are invited to wander through Petaling Street and discover the artworks on foot, experiencing the city through a different mode of attention.
For the KL Festival, this project takes place at Petaling Street from May 6-31. The good news? It's also open 24 hours.
Shadows under the moonlight
Last year, Wayang Women brought local audiences at REXKL a fresh glimpse of shadow puppetry with a feminist edge.
For KL Festival, the international all-women wayang kulit troupe returns with a unique outdoor performance under the night sky. The show will be held at Dataran Merdeka on May 16, from 9pm to 11.30pm.
In KL, Wayang Women takes the stage for what feels like a warm homecoming – especially for its Malaysian members – blending humour, folklore and shadow puppetry to reimagine local and regional ghost stories with a playful twist.
As the performance takes place outdoors, audiences are advised to bring umbrellas or raincoats in case of rain.
The Ronggeng rhythm
Ronggeng was once a social dance closely tied to Kuala Lumpur’s lively nightlife from the 1930s to the 1960s.
Visitors can rediscover this iconic ronggeng form through a two-hour programme that combines live performance, a dance workshop and an exhibition, curated by the Nusantara Performing Arts Research Center (NusPARC).
The performance and workshop will be held at Semua House on May 23, and at Plaza B, Central Market on May 30 and June 6. The accompanying exhibition runs at Semua House from May 18-23, and continues at Central Market from May 28-30, and June 4-6.
Cantonese opera by the river
Traditional Cantonese opera is brought to life along the urban riverside, where age-old narratives meet the pulse of a contemporary city.
The Yuet Wan Cantonese Opera Association, in full costume and accompanied by traditional musicians, will present excerpts from classic works as The Legend of the White Snake, An Unfinished Tale of Love and Retribution At The Phoenix Pavilion.
It may be a humid evening or a rainy day, but this Kuala Lumpur community of Cantonese opera masters, performers, enthusiasts and fans will be ready for this outdoor performance.
This one-night-only performance takes place at the Masjid Jamek Pedestrian Bridge on May 23 from 6pm.
Naadodi community screenings
Naadodi Film Festival 2026 debuts in Kuala Lumpur with a two-day programme featuring 16 Tamil diaspora films from eight countries.
Named after the Tamil word "naadodi", meaning wanderer or migrant, the festival, with filmmaker Sun J Perumal at the helm, celebrates stories shaped by migration, memory and identity beyond the homeland.
The screenings will take place at the Greybox, GMBB creative mall on May 30 and 31. Registration is required, so be quick. Beyond the screenings, the programme brings together Indian Malaysian artists across music, literature, and theatre.
On May 30, a special forum, “Catching the Big Fish – Seeking Malaysian Indian Identity,” gathers five artists from different mediums to reflect on their practices and the ongoing search for identity from distinct creative perspectives.
'I Can’t See Myself In This Landscape'
An immersive 60-minute self-led audio walk that transports individuals through different times and spaces of Kuala Lumpur. It is a new work created by Faiq Syazwan Kuhiri, and produced by Mark Teh.
Participants will begin their walk at the Perdana Botanical Gardens, navigating through Jalan Parlimen toward Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad.
They will stop at Dataran Merdeka, taking in its surroundings (including the Queen Victoria fountain), and end their journey overlooking the confluence of the Klang and Gombak rivers.
On this I Can’t See Myself In This Landscape journey, the solo walker moves through the histories that shaped colonial and downtown Kuala Lumpur, while tuning in to both the city’s rhythms and their own.
This series runs throughout the KL Festival. Register via Cloudjoi for audio materials and instructions.
Let the light shine
Warung Terang takes projection mapping beyond large building facades and into the streets, unfolding as a mobile, artist-led activation across sites such as Jalan Tun H.S. Lee, Muzium Telekom and the River of Life.
Presented by new media collective Filamen as part of the Kuala Lumpur Festival, the initiative invites audiences back into overlooked urban spaces, reimagining how they can be experienced after dark.
The programme (May 8–17 ) spans daytime workshops and evening street activations (8pm to 11.30pm), alongside REAVANG - an open platform for artists and creatives to experiment with visuals and sound in a live urban setting.
Participating artists include Fairuz Sulaiman, Fonetikar and Tan Ji Kean, as well as Indonesian collectives The Fox, The Folks, Story of Karana and Hue.
Speculative stories of KL
Created by writers and storytellers Adriana Nordin Manan, Badrul Hisham Ismail and Zen Lin Tan for KL Festival, Tumpang Lalu is an audio walk featuring three interwoven speculative stories available from May 6-31 that turn Kuala Lumpur into a living narrative landscape.
Set along a walking route spanning Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad, Medan Pasar, Kota Raya, Petaling Street and Central Market, it transforms the city into a living soundscape where memory, history, fiction and imagination converge.
Register via Cloudjoi for audio materials and instructions.
