News / Upfest
Upfest to return for 2024 with new programme
Upfest will return to Bristol this year with a new programme after taking a break last year and moving to a biannual model.
One of Bristol’s most popular attractions, the street art festival sees murals painted across south Bristol by some of the world’s best street artists.
This year, the weekend festival will be replaced by ‘Upfest Presents’, a pop-up festival across multiple venues in Bedminster and wider BS3 during May and June.
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There will be new artworks painted across two weeks, free-to-attend workshops, live painting, artist talks, arts activities, panel discussions, theatre, comedy and tours exploring the area.
Like in previous years, artists will return to paint large scale murals on buildings throughout the area, alongside mini paint-jams, talks and discussions about their works.
Upfest is Europe’s biggest street art festival, attracting over 50,000 people
Over 100 artists will take part in this year’s festival, with registrations now open to attend and paint the walls of Bedminster.
The festival, which had to take a break last year after struggling with funding, has launched a crowdfunder for this year’s event, aiming to raise £10,000 to support the activities alongside funding from Arts Council England.
Speaking about this year’s festival, co-founder Stephen Hayles said: “Upfest Presents… represents a new incarnation for the festival this year, more focussed on programming the mural creation with a huge spectrum of other activities across a two week period.
This means we won’t have a festival in the park but means we can spread the joy of Upfest across 17 days including three weekends.
“There will be tons for artists, art lovers and families to get involved in, while you can pop down and see murals being created throughout the whole period.
“Huge thanks to Arts Council England for giving us the opportunity to create the event this year and we’re looking forward to supporting local artists as well as welcoming artists from all over the world to Bristol.”
Upfest Presents will take place from May 18 to June 2. For more info visit www.Upfest.co.uk.
All photos: Plaster
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