Chinese New Year Entertainment Hire in Singapore
What to book, what it costs in SGD, and why the first three days of CNY sell out by December.
Chinese new year entertainment hire in Singapore usually centres on a lion dance troupe, priced from SGD800 for a standard routine up to SGD2200 for a twin lion or stunt routine. Add-ons such as a Fortune God walkabout or a traditional music set start from SGD400. Corporate visits, mall activations and dinner programmes should be locked in by early December, because troupes covering the eve and first three days of CNY are largely booked out by mid-January. One agency can bundle lion dance, emcee and dinner entertainment into a single run of show.
- What a Chinese New Year entertainment company provides
- Chinese new year entertainment hire prices in Singapore dollars
- How to hire chinese new year entertainment the right way
- Chinese new year themed entertainment hire for company dinners
- Chinese entertainment hire for malls, condos and shophouses
- Chinese themed entertainment hire beyond lion dance
- Lunar new year entertainment hire: timing and booking window
- The most expensive mistake companies make
- FAQ
What a Chinese New Year Entertainment Company Provides
A CNY event company in Singapore does more than send a lion dance troupe to your lobby for fifteen minutes. Most bookings fall into three groups: auspicious opening acts, cultural showcase performances, and a festive dinner or roving programme that keeps the event moving after the opening. Clients who anchor their event with one lion dance and build the rest of the programme around their venue, headcount and budget tend to get the smoothest run of show.
The opening tier covers lion dance, dragon dance, Fortune God (Cai Shen) walkabouts and festive drum troupes. These acts mark the occasion visually and usually include an eye-dotting ceremony, where a director or CEO dabs the lion's eyes with a brush before the routine begins. The cultural showcase tier covers guzheng, erhu and pipa musicians, Sichuan face changing performers, Chinese dance troupes, calligraphy artists and diabolo acts, and these work well as a standalone corner during cocktail hour. The dinner and roving tier is where a Mandarin singer or an oldies band, an emcee running a lo hei toss ceremony, roving mascots and red packet or mandarin orange gifting come in. This is what separates a full company CNY dinner from a five minute lobby visit, and our full list of act types covers every option across all three tiers.
Chinese New Year Entertainment Hire Prices in Singapore Dollars
Prices for chinese new year entertainment hire in Singapore move on two things: troupe size and date. A standard lion needs two dancers plus one or two drummers. A routine with pole or bench stunts needs a more skilled troupe, more setup time and floor space clearance, which pushes the price up. Dates matter just as much as the act itself: the eve and the first three days of CNY run a surcharge on top of a normal weekday rate, because troupes are working several venues back to back on those specific days.
| Act | Typical price (SGD) | What is usually included |
|---|---|---|
| Single lion dance, standard (15 to 20 min) | SGD800 to SGD1800 | 2 dancers, 1 to 2 drummers, cymbals, basic routine |
| Single lion dance with pole or bench stunts | SGD1800 to SGD2200 | Higher skill troupe, props, longer routine, photo moment |
| Twin lion dance | SGD2000 to SGD2200 | Two lions performing together, stronger visual for atriums |
| LED lion dance (low light or evening) | SGD1800 to SGD2200 | Illuminated costume, suited to dinner and dance nights or dim ballrooms |
| Dragon dance (9 to 12 metre dragon) | SGD2000 to SGD2200 | 8 to 12 performers plus drummer, needs open floor or outdoor space |
| Fortune God (Cai Shen) walkabout | SGD400 to SGD800 | 1 costumed performer, red packet photo walkabout, 30 to 45 minutes |
| Traditional music set (guzheng, erhu, pipa) | SGD400 to SGD800 | 1 to 3 musicians, 30 to 60 minutes, background or featured set |
| Festive drum troupe | SGD800 | Standalone drum performance or paired with lion dance entrance |
| CNY eve or first three days surcharge | +20% to 40% | Peak date loading, confirm exact figure at quote stage |
These are Singapore market ranges that shift with the season and with how many bookings a troupe already has on that date. Larger processions, such as a dragon dance beyond 12 metres or a multi-lion production, should be quoted directly against your floor plan rather than estimated from a table. Venue access fees, loading bay restrictions and firecracker permits are usually quoted on top of the performance fee, not folded into it. Our lion dance price list breaks this down further by troupe size and stunt level.
How to Hire Chinese New Year Entertainment the Right Way
To hire chinese new year entertainment in Singapore, give the agency four things upfront: the date, the venue address and floor, the time slot, and whether you want firecracker sound effects, a drum set or red packets included for a giving ceremony. A reputable troupe will ask about ceiling height before confirming, because pole jump and bench routines need clearance that low mall ceilings or function room false ceilings sometimes do not have.
A few things catch first-time bookers out. Singapore troupes are almost always Cantonese Southern lion style, which is louder and more acrobatic than the Northern style some clients have seen overseas. If your event lead expects the Northern look, flag the difference before the booking is confirmed, not on the day. Confirm also whether cymbal and drum noise is permitted in your venue: hotel ballrooms with an event running next door will sometimes cap volume or ask for a quieter routine. For office visitations across multiple floors or multiple entities in one building, ask whether the troupe charges per stop or a flat half-day rate for four to six short visits, since this changes the total meaningfully once you are past three stops.
Our full acts and services page lists every act available for the season, and our lion dance booking guide covers the per-stop versus flat-rate question in more detail.
Chinese New Year Themed Entertainment Hire for Company Dinners
Chinese new year themed entertainment hire for a company dinner usually needs to do double duty: mark the festival and give management a clean photo moment with staff or clients before the room moves into food. The standard corporate run of show is a five to ten minute welcome speech, a 15 to 20 minute lion dance with an eye-dotting ceremony, then a lo hei toss ceremony led by an emcee, followed by a red packet distribution or lucky draw, then dinner service begins.
For dinner and dance events specifically, an LED lion dance often outperforms a daylight troupe, because the lighting effect is built for a darkened ballroom and slots in cleanly as the opening act right after the emcee's welcome. If your D&D already has a live band and emcee booked, the lion dance sits as a 15 minute segment before the first course. Coordinating that timing between the emcee, the band and the troupe is exactly where booking through one agency saves real friction on the night rather than three separate suppliers trying to sync a run sheet by email. Our dinner and dance event planning page covers how that sequence is typically built, our emcee rates page has current pricing for the host running the lo hei and games segment, and our live bands page covers pairing a band with the opening act.
Larger companies running visitations across a business park sometimes book two troupes on the same morning to cover separate buildings within the same time window, since one troupe physically cannot be in two places at once. Plan this into your December booking, not your January one.
Chinese Entertainment Hire for Malls, Condos and Shophouses
Chinese entertainment hire for a mall, condo, shophouse or clan association hall runs into a different set of constraints at each location, and the venue should decide the act before the budget does. Mall atriums usually have decent ceiling height for pole stunts but tight floor space, which favours a single lion over twin lion or dragon dance. Condo management committees often want a shorter, family-friendly slot around 20 to 30 minutes with mandarin orange and red packet gifting for residents, paired with roving mascots for children.
Shophouses and clan associations sometimes still request actual firecrackers as part of the ritual, which needs a police permit arranged well in advance, and this is one of the few CNY bookings where the paperwork lead time matters more than the performer's availability. Temples and larger estate celebrations occasionally combine a dragon dance with a lion dance troupe for a longer procession, but this needs genuine open floor. A 9 to 12 metre dragon crammed into a standard aisle looks worse than a well executed lion dance in the same space.
Chinese Themed Entertainment Hire Beyond Lion Dance
Chinese themed entertainment hire does not have to mean lion dance at all. Clients who want something for a cocktail hour or a lobby corner without a full stage production usually look at guzheng, erhu or pipa musicians, Sichuan face changing performers, Chinese dance troupes, calligraphy artists who write names on red paper as a take-home gift, and diabolo acts. These suit events where the festival needs acknowledging but the floor space or budget does not stretch to a lion dance production.
Our cultural dance page and dancers in Singapore page list current acts and troupes available through the CNY season, including Chinese dance groups that work well alongside a musician corner or a lion dance opener.
Lunar New Year Entertainment Hire: Timing and Booking Window
Lunar new year entertainment hire in Singapore runs on a tighter calendar than most corporate clients expect. Chinese New Year falls in late January or February and the celebration runs 15 days from the eve to Chap Goh Mei. Companies, malls, condos, shophouses, temples and clan associations start booking from November, and by early December the peak week, meaning the eve plus the first three days, is filling fast. By mid-January, well known troupes are largely booked out for those specific dates.
Most corporate events land in the working week before the actual eve, since the eve and first two days are family time for most staff. Weekday slots in the two weeks after CNY day itself usually still have availability, since many companies push their office visitations into that quieter window rather than competing for the first weekend. We have worked CNY seasons at Marina Bay Sands, Suntec, Resorts World Sentosa, Capella, Shangri-La, Raffles, Fullerton and most major hotel ballrooms and office towers around Singapore, and the pattern holds every year: the first three days and the first weekend go first.
The most expensive mistake companies make
Waiting until January to book a lion dance for the first week of CNY. By mid-January the well known troupes for that specific window are gone, and companies end up either paying a heavy last-minute premium for a mediocre troupe or pushing their event to a date that clashes with their own dinner and dance or client visit schedule. Confirm your date in November if you want the first three days, and by early December for anything else in the peak week.
Send us your event date, venue and headcount on WhatsApp at +65 9428 4249 and we will send back a quote within a working day, with alternatives if your preferred date is already booked out. You can also browse our event type page for how a lion dance slots into weddings, grand openings and other formats beyond CNY, or read more booking guides on our blog.
Frequently asked questions
How much does chinese new year entertainment cost in Singapore?
A single lion dance runs from around SGD800 for a standard 15 to 20 minute routine, up to SGD2200 with pole or bench stunts. Twin lion dance and dragon dance both run from around SGD2000 to SGD2200 for standard sizes. Add-ons like a Fortune God walkabout or a traditional music set run from SGD400 to SGD800. The eve and first three days of CNY add a surcharge of roughly 20 to 40 percent.
How far in advance should I hire chinese new year entertainment?
Book by early December for anything in the peak week, which is the eve plus the first three days of CNY. Well known troupes are largely booked out for those specific dates by mid-January. Weekday slots in the two weeks after CNY day itself usually still have availability, since many companies shift their office visitations into that quieter window instead.
Do I need a permit for lion dance or firecrackers in Singapore?
The lion dance performance itself does not need a permit. Actual firecrackers, sometimes requested for shophouse or clan association ceremonies, need a police permit arranged well in advance. Most corporate and mall bookings use a recorded drum roll or a firecracker sound effect instead, which avoids the permit process entirely and is what most venues in Singapore now require.
What is the difference between chinese entertainment hire and lunar new year entertainment hire?
In Singapore the two terms describe the same booking. Chinese entertainment hire usually refers to acts tied to Chinese culture generally, such as guzheng music or Chinese dance, while lunar new year entertainment hire refers specifically to acts timed around the CNY calendar, like lion dance, dragon dance and Fortune God walkabouts. Most companies end up booking from both categories for one event.
Can I hire chinese themed entertainment for an event that is not Chinese New Year?
Yes. Chinese themed entertainment hire such as Chinese dance, guzheng or pipa music, calligraphy and diabolo acts books year round for weddings, company anniversaries, product launches and cultural festivals, not only CNY. Lion dance itself is also commonly hired outside CNY for grand openings and auspicious business milestones, where the eye-dotting ceremony still applies.
Is twin lion dance worth the extra cost over a single lion dance?
Twin lion dance, priced from around SGD2000 to SGD2200, suits atriums, large lobbies and bigger guest counts where a single lion gets visually lost in the space. For a standard office visitation or a smaller dinner function, a single lion dance from SGD800 usually delivers the same photo moment and ceremony at a lower cost.
How do I hire lunar new year entertainment for a multi-floor office visitation?
Tell the agency the number of floors or entities, the gap between stops, and whether each visit needs a full routine or a shorter greeting. Troupes typically quote either per stop or a flat half-day rate for four to six short visits, and the flat rate usually works out cheaper once you are past three stops in one morning.
What is included in a standard chinese new year entertainment hire package?
A standard single lion dance package, priced from SGD800, includes two dancers, one or two drummers, cymbals and a basic routine of 15 to 20 minutes, often with an eye-dotting ceremony. It does not usually include venue access fees, loading bay charges or firecracker permits, which are quoted separately once the venue and date are confirmed.
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