Welcome to the 2026 BUMP Festival

Monday July 6, 2026

OUR FIRST WAVE OF VISUAL ARTISTS IS HERE.

We are beyond excited to welcome you to the 2026 BUMP Festival: Of Simmering, and the Surge. This year asks us to consider how change takes form, both slowly and explosively. How do we respond to the forces that shape our world, at both the intimate and systemic level? What are the ideas, noise, gestures, and resistances that gather in the margins, in undergrounds, in small rooms, in fleeting conversations? And how do these moments accumulate, building pressure until they break through into the larger public sphere?

We are interested as a festival in the life cycle of ideas. The ways they move through different terrains, persisting across contexts, mutating as they travel, circling the drains of policy, and then flowing outward like rivers meeting the sea. We are thinking about the subtle, often invisible processes of formation that happen just beneath our awareness. The simmer may be slow and persistent, with the surge coming as sudden and undeniable. Perhaps even world shifting.

For 2026, we’re honoured to welcome our three exceptional guest curators – Marigold Santos, Said Dokins & Ken Lum, who have brought together artists from around the world to shape this year’s festival – from murals and sculpture to talks, music, and public interventions. Our first wave of visual artists features an incredible group of local, national, and international creatives who are redefining public art and shaping cultural conversations in the places they call home.

Please welcome to our festival:

Marigold Santos • Said Dokins • Geneva Haley • Nasarimba • NORMAL • Marc-Olivier Lamothe • Josh Morley • Moey Blanco • Alvin Luong

More announcements are coming to reveal our conference speakers, festival finale performers, special projects and our full events line up 🙂