Singapore Cocktail Festival 2021 is an entire month of cocktail revelry

Singapore Cocktail Festival 2021 – which runs from 12 November to 12 December this year – promises a lineup of special cocktails, boozy brunches, bar crawls, and more.

Singapore Cocktail Festival is back! The annual cocktail fest returns in a big way this year following a 2020 edition that was delayed – and then muted – by the raging coronavirus pandemic. Singapore Cocktail Festival 2021 looks to overcome that with an extended lineup that should please any and every cocktail lover.

For those not too familiar with this annual event, the Singapore Cocktail Festival (SGCF) started as Singapore Cocktail Week back in 2015 but evolved into a full-blown extended festival in 2017. The event grew from strength to strength – even partnering with Asia’s 50 Best Bars for its 2018 edition – until the global pandemic last year put a stop to large scale events.

This year’s festival promises to return to its former glory. Singapore Cocktail Festival 2021 will see some 60 cocktail-related events on its festival calendar running from 12 November to 12 December. While there won’t be its much beloved Festival Village from previous editions, activities this year include the City Takeover, various bar crawls, boozy cocktail brunches, and much much more.

City Takeover

The second run of the SGCF City Takeover will see some 36 bars across Singapore each offer a cheeky signature cocktail. Cheeky because the theme this year for these cocktails is music – something that F&B establishments have not been able to play in their venues due to social management measures since the start of the pandemic.

For example, MO Bar will be offering Roaring City, is a cocktail inspired by US-based Korean singer-songwriter Sarah Kang’s “Summer Is For Falling In Love”. Then there’s whisky-based To Be Frank by Madame Fan, named after legendary song meister Frank Sinatra.

Even better? These themed cocktails will go for a discounted price of S$18++ each for those with SGCF wristbands.

Cocktail Brunches

Weekend cocktail brunches have been hugely popular in recent time; just try getting a booking for Manhattan’s always sold-out boozy Sunday brunches. For five weekends across Singapore Cocktail Festival, 10 bars will be offering their versions of a lazy weekend cocktail brunch.

Participating bars include Astor Bar at St. Regis Singapore, which is offering a seafood-focused 4-course brunch on 20 November 2021 that comes with free-flow cocktails. Then there’s one of our favourite drinking spots Origin Bar at Shangri-la Singapore, which is also offering a 4-course cocktail pairing menu with classic brunch staples such as Avo Toast, “Bangers & Mash” and a Pineapple Inverted Cake, available on 11 December 2021.

Bar Crawls

Another popular Singapore Cocktail Festival activity over the years were the curated bar crawls, which brought participants to different venues on a theme-based drinking adventure.

But the SGCF organisers have upped the ante on the bar crawls this year with a special collaboration with London Cocktail Week. The Taste of London Bar Crawl, happening on 1 and 2 December, will see local bars partner up with London-based counterparts to offer their cocktails. Featured bars as part of this collaborative crawl include Junior The Pocket Bar (#82 Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2021) X Happiness Forgets; Manhattan (#6 Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2021) X Artesian ( #41 The World’s 50 Best Bars 2020); The Elephant Room X Coupette (#23, The World’s 50 Best Bars 2019); Bar Stories X Eve Bar; and No Sleep Club (#8 Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2021) X Three Sheets.

For something more local, the SGCF Discovery Bar Crawl on 17 and 18 November will bring revellers to various haunts, amongst which are Barbary Coast, Studio 1939 and The Old Man Singapore.

SGCF at Home

And if you’re adverse to traipsing around town during this pandemic, SGCF has you covered as well with various gift sets that one can order to celebrate in the comforts of one’s own home.

There’s the “Singapore Spirit”, a limited-edition home bar gift set presented in collaboration with Tanglin Gin, as well as the “Taste Of Singapore” home bar gift set in partnership with London Cocktail Week; the latter consists of two cocktail pouches using Brass Lion’s Singapore Dry Gin and exclusive cocktail recipes created by Club 5 at PARKROYAL Beach Road.

“We are always looking for new ways to excite festival goers, so even though the Festival Village is not able to return (yet), we are confident that participating cocktail bars will put on their best and most innovative experiences to wow their fans,” says Wai Mayleng, co-founder of Singapore Cocktail Festival.

To register for your Singapore Cocktail Festival 2021 wristbands, book your bar crawls and cocktail brunches, shop for the SGCF gift sets, or simply to find out more, visit www.singaporecocktailfestival.com.

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