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Some people purportedly had to queue 2 to 3 hours to collect NDP tickets, others say queue moved quickly
Queues.
July 01, 2026, 03:52 PM
Photos from Mothership reader
The collection of this year's National Day parade (NDP) tickets started on Jun. 26, 2026.
Several people have since highlighted the long queues and waiting times at the collection centre located in Marina Square, with some questioning the need for physical tickets in the age of digitalisation.
Along with the complaints were also those who said the queues moved quickly and the crowd was orderly.
Waiting times from 20 minutes to 2 hours
According to the NDP website, estimated wait times get increasingly longer as the day progress:
- 10:30am - 11:00am: ~20 minutes
- 11:00am - 12:00pm: ~30-45minutes
- 12:00pm - 4:00pm: ~1 hour
- 4:00pm - 6:00pm: ~1.5 hours
- 6:00pm - 8:30pm: ~2 hours
A Mothership reader said that they waited about 30 minutes after queuing at 10:30 am on Jun. 27 to collect her tickets.
According to her, the situation there was orderly.
"There are more than 50 staff there to assist you. People were all standing and queuing in orderly position. There were 10 counters there for collection," she said.
"I purposely went early because I saw them showing the estimated time for morning queue to be 20 min, and evening queue to be as long as two hours," she added.
She also shared that this was her first time getting tickets for the parade in eight years after balloting every year.
Gave up queuing
One Instagram user Donovan also posted the queue situation when he went down on Sat. 28 at around 3:30pm.
A staff member was holding a sign indicating that the queue could be two to three hours long.
He told Mothership that he ended up not queuing as he didn't want to wait and will head down again for the next round of collection from Jul. 3 to 5.
Nonetheless, he is still looking forward to attending the parade to "experience the Singapore spirit and see our performers in action".
He plans to attend with his niece and nephews, after balloting and finally getting a ticket for the first time in 10 years.
The NDP will return to the National Stadium this year, for the first time since 2016.
