Urban Art Festivals: Discover the Best Street Art Events

For two years now, I’m following the creative development of Italian street artist and yarn-bomber Moneyless and I have to say, I really love to the the progress his artwork’s evolution. Whereas the first artworks where simple plain geometrically yarn-patterns on walls, his latest works include more complex, three-dimensional rope structures wafting in the air as well as pretty nice geometrically murals and prints… For Fame Festival 2012, he recently brought together samples of all his skills. Documented by some videographers, Moneyless scratched, screen-printed, painted and stretched ropes in the small Italian city of Grottaglie! ...

Artbase is back - The urban art festival, which took place in the abandoned sanitarium Grabowsee near Berlin in 2011, is now heading to the abandoned NSA fieldstation at Teufelsberg Berlin! With about 100 confirmed urban artists, including Karl Addison and James Bullough, Alias, Buff Diss, Graffiti Research Lab Germany, SAM Crew, Mean Marek, SP-38, Tona and Wurstbande, Artbase 2012 is with no doubt going to become this year’s biggest urban art festival in Berlin… Artbase 2012 is not a commercial festival, but an urban art weekend. We like free spirits and promote fine arts. The festival combines urban art, royalty-free music on different dance-floors and workshops with the magical feeling that radiates from this place. (loosely translated) ...

With a line-up reading like the who-is-who of Europe’s urban mural artists - including DXTR, Nychos, Pixelpancho, Etam Cru, Arsek & Erase, ECB and many more - the probably biggest European street art festival Like it. Art, which took place in Kazan, the capital and largest city of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, just finished. As promised a few days ago, I managed to get some impressions from there… Like it. Art Festival Large and medium scale graffiti appeared on the walls of around 40 objects across the city. The festival arranged under the project MadeInKazan also encompassed public master classes, lectures of the European artists, the best canvases exhibition, “Trash-truck hunting” night painting session and a graffiti contest. ...

Once again it is time to break away from everyday life and rigid routine mundane thought patterns, and leave behind the golden cage of the accustomed. Escape the Golden Cage is back and looks like the first massive urban art festival 2012! Escape the Golden Cage, which sees itself as a quality platform for creativity, communication, art dealers and art education, is the first urban art exhibition in Austria and breaks away from any traditional exhibition due to its unique festival character. During two weeks, the temporary art spaces present renowned and young artists, from its Austrian home and from around the world, whose works are inspired by street art, graffiti and urban life - to our liking! ...

da mental vaporz mural After my friend Blo created this great new mural in Berlin, he directly went to Brest to catch up with Sowat, Dran, Bom.k and the rest of Da Mental Vaporz (DMV) crew! Together they recently started to paint this massive collaboration mural as a part of the French urban art event Crimes of Minds, which is already running for nearly half a year and brought together urban artists from all over Europe such as Morten Andersen</strong, FinDAC and Sly2, Best Ever and Ben Slow, and many more! ...

Sydney City Council has been accused of vandalism after visiting American artist Barry McGee has controversially painted the wrong wall! As I just read on Yahoo News (thanks to Skalitzers for the link!), McGee painted a wall by mistake when he visited Sydney for the Art & About festival that takes art out of the gallery setting and into the streets: Critics are claiming Barry McGee’s artwork is glorified vandalism. The art community supports the work saying taste in art is personal. ...

Eurocultured is a series of street festivals and linked projects that celebrate the diversity of European Culture in all its forms. After its great success in Manchester back in 2010, it took place in the Finnish city of Turku earlier this year and again brought together urban dance, live music, DJ sets, hip hop theater, various action sports and graffiti artists from all over Europe, like Nychos, Mr. Jago, Elph and others! Recently, Spearfish published their Eurocultured Retrospective video documentary, exploring the festivals origins and unique delights featuring live performances from Balkan Beat Box, Sleeping Giants, Riot Jazz, Bad Ass Brass Band, KKC Orchestra and Dr Mahogany’s’ Goat Circus, as well as interviews with some of Europe’s top graffiti artists Aryz, Mr Kern, Bue, Turkesa and many more. ...

The global ReUse art project calls for art! It is an on-going urban, street, and domestic planning campaign endorsing urban perma-culture and renewal through artistic means. This year, ReUse will take place for the third time, this time the art exhibition will reuse an abandoned building in central Tel Aviv! Have a look at the photos from the past events with artworks by over 100 international and local artists: ReUse Project 1: Jerusalem 2007 and ReUse Project 2 - Tel Aviv 2008. ...