Katong Dreaming review: What to expect from this musical walking tour

Singapore’s Katong district is most famous for its Peranakan culture and a walking tour is a nice way to learn more about the area, but why settle for a standard walking tour when you can learn about Katong with a little song and dance? I recently checked out Katong Dreaming, a musical tour that explores the Katong neighbourhood. Here’s my Katong Dreaming Review (without too many spoilers of course!) if you are planning to check it out for yourself.

I was invited as media to check out Katong Dreaming season 2, but all thoughts expressed here are based purely on my experience.

Katong Dreaming Season 3 runs from 2 Nov – 1 Dec 2024 on Saturdays (4-6pm, 730-930pm) and Sundays (4-6pm). Get your tickets from katongdreaming.peatix.com

Where is Katong in Singapore?

Katong is in the southeastern part of Singapore and is best known as an area with a distinct Peranakan heritage. Peranakan refers to the culture born from the mixed practices and intermingling of culture from straits immigrants intermarrying with the local-born people. Many Peranakans lived in this neighbourhood, and a large number of businesses and restaurants here today continue to showcase that unique Peranakan flavour.

I stayed at the Village Hotel Katong which has a Peranakan theme in its design, as well as visited a private house museum called the Intan for a Peranakan tea experience.

Honestly, I didn’t grow up here and never really associated with this neighbourhood much until I started working in a nearby area some years back, and would occasionally make the quick jaunt down East Coast Road for some good eats. I also spent a lot more time here in recent years looking for murals and street art and giving tours in recent years.

The Katong-Joo Chiat area has also seen more push by the Singapore Tourism Board because of its Peranakan heritage. It hasn’t always been the most accessible because of its distance from the East-West MRT Line (Green), but the recent opening of the Thomson-East Coast Line (Brown) has made it even more accessible than before.

About Katong Dreaming

Katong Dreaming is a performance art walking tour around the Katong-Joo Chiat neighbourhood. Instead of a typical walking tour where a tour guide shares stories and facts about the place, this musical tour has artists sharing specially created music, poetry and dance inspired by the area’s history as you walk around the area over the two hours.

It’s a guided audio tour to some extent as you are given a pair of headphones to listen to along the walk. Some bits are pre-recorded like the background music that provides some atmosphere as you walk along the route, but most of it allows you to better hear the artists as the performance happens live. Some of what you experience can be influenced by the surroundings and circumstances of the day.

Katong Dreaming is a tour by Betel Box Tours – some might have heard of Betel Box Hostel, one of the longer running backpacker hostels in Singapore that has been around since 2003 and have a pretty famous food tour. They launched Katong Dreaming Season 1 post-pandemic in Feb/Mar 2022, and I watched Season 2 in Aug 2023.

My Katong Dreaming review in detail

Katong Dreaming usually has a late afternoon matinee timing from 4-6pm and in the evening 730-930pm. I did the evening show on a Saturday, which is a fairly busy time for the district with weekend dinner crowds, but is also a bit cooler for walking without the sunshine. Evening does feel a bit more atmospheric because it’s darker, but if you want nicer photos with bright colours, consider the matinee slots instead.

The show started off at the Singapore Visitor Centre located at Kim Choo Kueh Chang [Google maps location]. You can buy souvenirs here while waiting around – usually I buy a couple of Nyonya and Ba Changs (sticky rice dumplings) back for the family when I pass through here.

We were welcomed by Tony, boss of Betel Box Hostel and administrator and traffic warden for the night. He set us up with the headsets which are an essential part of the tour – because we’re walking outdoors with the crowds, the headsets allow you to hear all the commentary, singing and background music without too much interference.

I think random people walking by our group were definitely curious about what exactly we were listening to – it’s like watching a silent disco especially when the performers are doing their thing and all the music/context is only happening over the headphones so onlookers have no idea what they are moving to.

My only issue was that the headphones are pretty warm to wear the whole time so I had to air one ear at a time, but the bright blue lights on the earpieces were also useful in identifying the group easily as we walked around.

The main host and narrator of the show is Mark Tan. I knew him before this as a musician and singer but in true Singaporean artist form, the man has many other talents including being a licensed tourist guide. He composed the tunes and sang live throughout the tour, recited poetry, historical facts and personal anecdotes alike and was basically responsible for carrying the show, big kudos to him!

Besides Mark, another key performer on this tour is the dancer – there are different dancers on each day, ours was Nicole. Clad in a pink multi-purpose Peranakan-style sarong, she didn’t really follow the group around, but popped up at key points to help tell the story.

The itinerary itself isn’t really a secret – you can see it in the tour description, but I like that it doesn’t just cover the tourist highlights like Koon Seng Road and East Coast Road, but also brings you through the residential areas and other less well known local gems like Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple and Roxy Square. We even visited an unexpected spot in a carpark – I won’t spoil it any further, but that was a fun insight into local culture.

Even as someone who spent most of my life growing up in Singapore and has done a fair amount of local research for travel writing, some of the stories about these places in Katong were new to me.

As a part of the tour, you are also invited to join a whatsapp group and relevant links will be sent to you so you can do a little more reading afterwards, and they also give some context notes which are useful for the foreigners who might not know about the local stereotypes or perceptions of certain places/people.

Also here’s my big tip for you – they will offer you stools at the start of the tour that you can tote along and sit on during the walk. TAKE THEM. The tour lasts about 2 hours and there aren’t really any places to lean against or sit on in the public spaces. I definitely did not regret being able to rest my legs at all.

Should you watch Katong Dreaming?

Yes, Katong Dreaming was a great way to spend my Saturday evening!

Katong Dreaming was an enjoyable walking tour with a difference that presents the Katong neighbourhood in a fresh way with music and performance. If you’re like me and forget all the historical dates and details as soon as the tour guide shares them, you might appreciate learning about this unique Singaporean neighbourhood through songs, poetry and movement instead.

Katong Dreaming is a tour that both local Singaporeans and foreign tourists can enjoy. Singaporeans might find it more meaningful because they can better understand some of the local references and culture, but tourists who are looking to go beyond the usual attractions and dig into what makes Singapore Singapore, I think they can enjoy this tour as well.

For those thinking about bringing their families along, I’d recommend this tour for adults or those with older kids who can appreciate a bit of history. Families with younger toddlers might find it challenging to keep the kids entertained and not disrupt the atmosphere while trying to appreciate the stories being told.

Thanks again to the Katong Dreaming Team for inviting me to check out this walking tour with a difference. Each season is run for a limited amount of time and who’s to know when the show will return, so don’t miss out on this chance to check out the show before the run ends!

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Interested in more of Singapore neighbourhoods? See more offbeat things to do in Singapore here: