 He was the first artist to helm the festival since the festival's inception in 1977, which had previously been headed by civil servants.Ong restructured the festival and renamed it SIFA to highlight the Singapore and international perspectives in it.Beginning with 20,000 audiences in SIFA 2014, this has increased to 62,000 and in 2016, the festival peaked with 155,000 attendances, 96% capacity houses and 75% of its performances sold out.