About this survey
Led by the Mental Health Foundation, the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF) is one of the world’s leading arts events dedicated to mental health. It is an internationally respected annual festival that combines high artistic quality with strong grassroots support, community engagement and social activism.
Now in its 20th year the festival aims to support the arts, explore how engagement in the arts can help prevent mental ill health and challenge preconceived ideas about mental health.
SMHAF 2026 takes place across Scotland from 19 October–8 November 2026, exploring the theme of Reflections. More information about the festival can be found at www.mhfestival.com.
This survey is an opportunity for our team to better understand who attends the festival, how they hear about it and what motivates them to attend event(s). It also provides us with insights into any impact engaging with the festival has on people. The information gathered from the survey helps us to ‘tell the story’ of the festival to existing partners and funders and can help us to secure future funding.
Consent
The information gathered in this survey will be anonymous, and no personal information will be asked for.
The data will be collated with other survey responses to inform a short evaluation report which will contain no personally identifiable information.
The data will be analysed and stored securely by the research team at the Mental Health Foundation.
This report will then be shared with the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival team to allow it to:
- Understand who took part in SMHAF 2026 and their motivations for engaging.
- Understand the impact of SMHAF on those who participated so that the team can explore what worked well and what could be improved in the future.
- Learn lessons from SMHAF 2026 and use these to inform future festivals and related activities.
