Light the Blue 2026: Soil Love Letters Call-Out, Looking For Entries
Light the Blue 2026
Soil Love Letters Call-Out
Looking For Entries
A living installation premiering at the Music Hall from 2nd – 14th June as part of Light the Blue 2026
We’d love you to be part of this.
This summer at Light the Blue Festival, a filing cabinet will stand in the space — painted to show the layers of earth beneath our feet, topped with real living moss. Open a drawer and you’ll find an archive of love letters written to soil: tender ones, funny ones, worried ones, scientific ones. Then you can add your own.
We’re collecting letters now, ahead of the festival opening on 2nd June, so that the archive is already full of voices when visitors arrive. Your words could be the first thing a stranger reads when they open a drawer.
How do I write one?
Just start with “Dear Soil,” and see where it goes. There’s no right way to do this — any tone, any length, any voice. A letter can be written, drawn, collaged, printed, or whatever form feels right to you. And this is open to everyone — whether you are 5 or 95, a seasoned writer or someone who’s never written a letter in their life, we want to hear from you. If it helps, here are a few places to begin:
- What have you noticed about the ground beneath your feet?
- What are you grateful to the soil for?
- What do you think soil would say back to you?
- What memory do you carry that involves the earth?
Children are warmly welcome to draw their letter, dictate it, or write however feels right.
What happens to my letter?
It gets placed in a drawer — ready for someone at the festival to discover. Selected letters will also be recorded as audio at the installation, and some may be included in a digital archive for those who can’t visit in person.
Every contributor to the installation also gets a seed paper scroll to take home and plant. So if you submit a letter, something of yours will be there — in the archive, in the room, and maybe eventually in someone’s garden.
About Light the Blue Festival
Soil Love Letters is part of Light the Blue, Aberdeen Performing Arts’ festival for and by young people running 2nd – 14th June 2026. The installation is free to visit during Music Hall opening hours – Tuesday – Saturday, 9.30am – 6pm.
Ready to write?
Send your letter with the subject line ‘Soil Love Letter’ to maramarxtlewis@aberdeenperformingarts.com.
From Thursday 9th April you can also drop a handwritten letter into the collection boxes at His Majesty’s Theatre or Music Hall box offices.
Submissions close 26th May at midnight to allow time for printing before the festival opens.
We can’t wait to read what you write.
Deadline: Tuesday 26th May at midnight.
