Nuart Aberdeen returns next spring with new dates and fresh paint
Walls across the city will again be transformed with bold new public artworks and murals.
Nuart Aberdeen has confirmed new dates for 2026, and it’s heading back to familiar ground. After a year off, the street art festival will return to its pre-COVID slot at the end of April, running from 23 to 26 April. For longtime fans, it’s a welcome return to the spring weekends where it all began.
The festival has always been about more than the murals themselves. Each edition leaves a visible trace on the city, building a public gallery that anyone can explore for free, at any time. “Given Nuart Aberdeen is all about transformation and bringing life and colour to the city,” said Adrian Watson of Aberdeen Inspired, “we felt there could be no better time for its return than in spring.”
Would you like to see your message here? Let's talk.
Have you signed-up for the Belmont Cinema Newsletter yet?
The team working to reopen the Belmont release a newsletter once a month with all the latest updates on their campaign, details about how you can get involved, and their exciting events calendar.
Next Up from the Belmont? A Lost Cinemas Walking tour with Hidden Aberdeen, and Nautical Screenings in partnership with Aberdeen Art Gallery’s Monsters of the Deep Exhibition.
Why April?
This move away from recent June dates is partly practical. Organisers paused planning while waiting for council funding to be confirmed. With the Tall Ships taking over summer headlines, bringing Nuart back in April gives it space to breathe and do what it does best: surprise, challenge and open up the city in new ways.
Since 2017, the festival has brought internationally renowned artists to Aberdeen, turning blank walls into landmarks. Hera’s towering mural above the harbour still draws crowds, and more recent works have continued to push what street art can be. Sometimes huge, sometimes subtle, always public.
Art in unexpected places
One of the unique joys of Nuart is that it invites discovery. Pieces are scattered across the city centre, often turning up in alleys, underpasses or quiet side streets. It encourages you to walk, look up and re-see parts of the city you might have stopped noticing. That mix of large-scale showstoppers and tucked-away gems is part of what makes it feel so woven into everyday Aberdeen.
While the full artist lineup is still to be revealed, the announcement gives fans something to look forward to. And you don’t have to wait until next year to engage with it. Sunday walking tours are running until September, or you can use the online map to take yourself round the city’s ever-growing open-air gallery.
Next spring, new artists will bring fresh work to familiar streets just as the city starts to bloom. POST will have news on the 2026 lineup as soon as they are announced.
