Benjamin Parry turns a week of Aberdeen street art into a poem.
Nuart Aberdeen has released its 2026 festival film today. It’s the work of Benjamin Parry, who wrote a poem inspired by the festival and built the film around it, his verse running over footage of the murals going up across the city in April. You can watch it above.
In the film, Parry sums it up perfectly: “Because sometimes, when people cannot change the world, they write on it instead.”
Nuart is Scotland’s national street art festival, and its 2026 edition ran from 22 to 26 April. It started in 2017 and has pulled in tens of thousands of visitors since. This year’s theme, Poetry Is In The Streets, handed artists a different brief from usual: words first, pictures second.
The line-up mixed local artists with names from across Scotland and abroad. Its centrepiece was Robert Montgomery, who filled the Bon Accord Baths with an 11-metre illuminated poem, the festival’s first indoor piece in nine years, and left a second work at Alford Place. Remi Rough painted the George Street entrance to the Bon Accord Centre, and others planted smaller pieces in corners around the city centre without saying where.
Missed it in April? You can still see most of the 2026 work on a Nuart Aberdeen Street Art Tour, which runs every Sunday.
More to explore in Aberdeen
Gigs, theatre, art, comedy, and community events — our listings page has it all, including the things that don't make it onto the usual calendars.
See what's on in Aberdeen →
Comments ()