The Neverending Glen, the immersive outdoor arts programme at Kelburn Estate on Scotland’s west coast, returns for 2026 with its most ambitious production yet. Enter a world of art, nature, inspiration and imagination, with over 30 artists, a new permanent collection map, and a theme – Beneath the Surface – drawn from the hidden networks beneath the forest floor.
Kirsten Tingle & RJ Weaver bring Mycelial Bodies, an installation of living mycelium figurative sculptures, grown with blue-grey oyster mushrooms on waste cardboard and spent coffee grounds
The Neverending Glen at Kelburn Garden Party is a unique ecosystem, hidden in an ancient Scottish glen, where artists, live music, spontaneous performance and the landscape itself combine to form an experience unlike any other; one that invites an exploration of art, nature and imagination, which no two people will encounter in the same way.
This ground-breaking multi-arts trail that rises above Kelburn’s main festival site is an integral and much-loved part of the event. Encouraging bold engagement from both artists and viewers, this fusion of art and nature sparks new perspectives; a sensory adventure that is totally unique on the international festival scene.
Beneath the Surface is the theme for 2026, drawn from the science of mycorrhizal fungi, the vast underground networks linking trees in mutual exchange, carrying nutrients and signals through the soil. Ecologists call it the Wood Wide Web. At Kelburn, it becomes a metaphor for something equally essential: the web of artists, musicians, makers and audiences whose connections sustain and animate the festival year after year.
2026 also marks a significant milestone, as The Neverending Glen has formally established itself as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO). This status will enable year-round residencies, classes, workshops and an expanded commissioning programme, ensuring that an event that has always centered around a public good in spirit now has the infrastructure to grow and serve the wider community across all four seasons.
At the heart of The Neverending Glen is the glen itself. In the space of just over half a mile, the Kel Burn, which has carved out the glen over thousands of years, rises on the moors 800 feet above the castle and drops dramatically, by way of waterfalls and deep gorges, to the sea. The glen is home to an array of flora and fauna, and rugged trails criss-cross the burn. During the festival, this extraordinary landscape is transformed with a thoughtfully curated programme of contemporary art installations, pop-up performances and spontaneous encounters, weaving art and nature into a single, unmissable experience.
Over 30 artists were selected for the 2026 programme across an open call, commissioned work and residency strands, with work spanning sculpture, installation, sound, performance, aerial circus, land art, printmaking, ceramics and walkabout theatre. They form part of a creative community for whom Kelburn has become, in the words of its festival director, “a bit of a beacon.”
Highlights include:
Kirsten Tingle & RJ Weaver bring Mycelial Bodies, an installation of living mycelium figurative sculptures, grown with blue-grey oyster mushrooms on waste cardboard and spent coffee grounds.
Microsteria Presents ‘CREATURE GATHERING’ in collaboration with Earthly Measures & The Neverending Glen at the Beach Plateau. Having first emerged through ‘A Symbiotic Circus’ at Hidden Door Festival 2022, Microsteria has since evolved into a club-orientated world combining electronically mutated music, visuals, costume and performance art. Following its Kelburn debut in 2024, this edition brings together performance artists, dancers, acrobats and costumed participants together to honour Kelburn’s enchanting ecosystem.
Melissa Rankin presents a GPS-triggered soundwalk through the glen, with field recordings and original compositions unlocked location by location, culminating in a deep listening meditation at Kelburn’s iconic waterfall.
More Fun With Games invite visitors into Kelburn Raving Stravaiging, a psycho-geographic storytelling game. Traverse the Festival and Glen, digitally and physically, uncovering what lies beneath: hidden treats and treasures, revealing artistry, history and mystery; places and spaces and maybe some from faces.
Neil Butler, Maria McCavana & Jack Butler present Net Work, built from ghost fishing nets rescued from the sea. Visitors attach the names of relationships they wish to mend, and as contributions grow, the net slowly rises into a pyramidal structure suspended in the air.
Ruby Loveday adds the second in her series of galvanised steel standing stones, placed at a viewpoint looking out across the islands and becoming a permanent fixture in Kelburn’s growing outdoor collection.
HAGS (Jas Robertson, Josephine O Connor, Freya Martin) host a series of engaging workshops in the Earth Built space, that will focus on ways of working with raw earth and clay. Using local clay sourced from nearby burns and rivers, along with coppiced hazel and willow, participants will explore traditional techniques and creative expression.
Lucid Acid present Second Sight, a site-specific acrobatic intervention at the edges of the woodland. Inspired by the folklore belief that mythical creatures are visible only to children and the distracted, performers retreat into the foliage the moment they are directly observed.
Bright Side Studios, known for transforming buildings, landscapes and interior spaces into immersive narrative experiences through projection mapping and animation, will create a specially commissioned visual work inspired by this year’s Beneath the Surface theme, bringing the hidden worlds and unseen connections of the forest to life
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The programme also features silk prints suspended over the river, ear casts on mossy trees, a rusted steel obelisk slowly colonised by moss, and ceramic sculptural threads winding through the woodland.
This year will also feature a new land art residency that emphasises nature and sustainability, led by Scottish artist James Craig Page. Amid a collection of artists creating stone balancing, natural mandalas from found material and forest sculptures, audiences will be invited to get involved and create their own temporal land art.
The Neverending Glen does not end when the festival does. Kelburn Estate is free to visit year-round, and its permanent art collection grows with every season. This year the team has developed a new permanent map of the entire collection, allowing visitors to discover the vast array of art that has accumulated over years of creative ambition. An estimated 55,000 people visit the estate outside of festival time each year.
Supported by EventScotland’s National Events Programme, Kelburn Garden Party continues to push boundaries in Scotland’s independent festival scene, balancing world-class talent with grassroots values and a strong connection to its natural surroundings.
