Capital Cultures
Ottawa · Canada Bring a pavilionA pavilion FR

Journal · the mailing list

The only channel open today.

One mailing list, split three ways, is the only channel this festival has today — there is no social account, no feed, no group chat. It tells you what is happening with this festival before anybody else hears it, and when the social accounts do open, this list hears about them first.

Pick your lists What each one carries

Three lists · three separate ticks · none of them ticked for you · current as of 29 August 2026

How the list works
LineHow
ListsNews · Festival · Participants
ConsentRecorded per list, with the date
Pre-ticked boxesNone
UnsubscribeOne click, in every letter
Sold or rentedNever
What we storeYour address, the lists, the date
3

Lists · three separate ticks

Canadian anti-spam law asks for consent under each specific type of letter. Splitting them from the first day costs one extra column in a database; splitting them afterwards means asking everybody again.

CASL · consent recorded per list, with the wording you agreed to

Take the ones you want.

Each list carries one kind of letter and nothing else. Leaving one of them leaves the other two running, because they are three separate consents and they behave separately.

News · Festival · Participants

01

News of the build

What moved this fortnight: a permit application filed or answered, a community signed on, a grant refused, a date that shifted. Short letters, and the ones reporting a setback go out the same as the rest. Every two weeks from autumn 2026.
02

Festival announcements

The things a visitor needs: when the programme lands, when the site map publishes, what is happening on the two days, and what to know before coming. Quiet for most of the year and busy in the weeks before August.
03

Letters for participants

For a community bringing a pavilion, a vendor with a pitch, a volunteer on a shift, a performer on a stage. Deadlines, documents, training dates and the practical detail of taking part. Useless to anybody who is not doing one of those things.
A row of seven letterboxes on a wooden rail at the kerb of a suburban street in autumn, each painted a different colour, one of them standing open, fallen maple leaves across the grass.
A row of boxes at the kerb, one of them standing open

Pick your lists.

An email address, the lists you want, and the date you asked. Nothing else is stored and nothing else is asked for.

One address · no name required · one-click unsubscribe in every letter

What you want to hear about (required) Canadian anti-spam law asks for consent per mailing type, so we ask per type. One click unsubscribes, any time.

The mailing list is the only channel open today, and it is the first place anything new is said.

An information booth under a draped canopy at dusk, a corded telephone, stacks of leaflets and a folded plan on the counter.
The booth at dusk, a corded telephone and leaflets on the counter
Six promises · each one easy to break quietly

What we promise about your inbox.

Six lines, and each one is a thing that would be easy to break quietly. Writing them down is the point.

House rules · they hold for every letter we ever send

  • Only the lists you ticked. Subscribing to news never turns into festival marketing, and an application never turns into either.
  • One-click unsubscribe, in every letter. No form to fill in, no reason to give, no offer to stay.
  • Leaving one list leaves the others. They are separate consents and they behave separately.
  • Never sold, never rented, never handed to a sponsor. A sponsor gets a report about the festival, and never a name or an address.
  • No tracking pixels reporting on you. We count how many letters were opened in total, and we build no profile of what any one person reads.
  • Quiet is the default. A fortnightly rhythm on news, busier only in the weeks before the festival, and nothing sent because a Tuesday looked empty.

Changing your mind, or getting out.

Every route below reaches a person or a working link. Nothing here requires an account, because there is no account.

Answered within thirty days, and usually the same week

What you can ask for, and how.
What you wantHow
Off one listThe unsubscribe link in that letter. The others keep running.
Off everythingUnsubscribe from each, or write to us and say so in one line.
A different set of listsWrite to us, or subscribe again with the ticks you want.
A copy of what we holdAsk, and it comes back in a form you can read.
Everything about you deletedAsk. The reply names what went and what a backup still holds until it rolls over.
A different addressSubscribe with the new one and unsubscribe the old, or ask us to move it.
A sealed cream envelope with a red wax seal standing on dark indigo cloth in a shaft of window light, a small heap of turmeric to one side and a dish of saffron and matcha to the other.
A cream envelope closed with a red wax seal, on indigo cloth in window light
Write to us about the list The full privacy notice
How often will you write?

News runs every two weeks from autumn 2026. Festival announcements are quiet most of the year and busier in the weeks before August. Participant letters arrive when a deadline or a document needs you, and not otherwise.

Do I have to give my name?

No. An email address and your ticks are the whole of it.

I applied for something. Am I subscribed?

No. Every intake form carries a separate tick if you also want letters, and it is not ticked for you.

Will there be letters in French?

Yes, with the French mirror of the site. The subscription form already records your language so the switch reaches you without asking again.

What happens if the festival does not go ahead?

You get a letter saying so, with what happened and what comes next. A list that only carries good news is a list nobody should trust.

Journal · strand 04 of 04

The rest of the journal.

Hear it before everyone else.

One list, three ticks, and the only channel this festival has today.

Pick your lists Read the journal