LAS Festival: The Altar 2026
09 - 22 November 2026
3 Creekside, London SE8 4SA
In November 2026, LAS Community will launch The Altar, an evolving and community-oriented festival of radical collaboration taking place in our site in Deptford.
In lieu of The Menu’s iconic sculptural table in 2025, LAS Community is proud to present the second chapter of its series: The Altar. Over two weeks, LAS will welcome an ensemble of creatives from the fields of performance, sound, culinary arts, fashion, and writing to convene across five day-to-night events.
Selected participants will offer an interpretation of the social field of “worship.” We’re particularly interested in proposals that ask what spirituality looks like beyond the church: how does belief transform proximity into a shared experience, and what happens when those structures of belief disappear?
12.11 PART ONE: TASTE & SCENT
What we consume, how we consume it, and with whom are never purely personal choices, they’re shaped by culture, memory and the company we keep. This day takes inspiration from the Holy Communion, exploring how taste and scent carry meaning, bind people together, and mark moments as significant. It is a probing of shared consumption as collective ritual.
14.11 PART TWO: FASHION
Dress is a system of meaning. How we appear, what we choose, refuse, modify and perform through bodily adornment is the dominant way in which identity is constructed and communicated. Subcultural fashion in particular has long operated as a way of building alternative belonging: asserting visibility, refusing dominant codes, creating a community through shared aesthetic and lifestyle values. This day treats the garment as a medium for both self-expression and collective identity.
20.11 PART THREE: PERFORMANCE
This day positions the human body as both the subject and medium of faith. It traces the live exchange between congregation and performer. How the room’s attention shapes the work, and how the work reshapes the room. Meaning isn’t preordained but negotiated in real time by everyone present.
21.11 PART FOUR: SOUND
Sound is a mechanism for collective experience. Sonic culture has historically aligned people through shared rhythm and emotional response. This day foregrounds listening as a cultural activity” to “where artists across genres are held together not by style, but by the shared condition of being in a room where sound moves everyone at once.
PART FIVE: WRITING
Language is the oldest technology of belief. Before the sermon, there was the text, words repeated until they became rite, read aloud until they became shared. This day considers writing as a communal act rather than a solitary one: the page as a site of confession, testimony and address. Curated by LAS Writes, the day asks what happens when the private act of writing is returned to a room, and whether meaning changes once it’s spoken into the presence of others.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
We will be inviting contributors from last year’s The Menu, and we’ll also be opening additional positions to the public for those interested in getting involved.
We are seeking proposals that reflect the different ways we experience spirituality and worship. Each participant will lead their own service and offer an interpretation of the social field of “worship.” We’re particularly interested in events that ask what spirituality looks like beyond the church: how does belief transform proximity into a shared experience, and what happens when those structures of belief disappear?
We welcome ideas that challenge conventional exhibition formats, especially those that actively create opportunities to connect with new audiences.
Please visit our Opportunities Page for more information about the open call.
