BRING THE PAINT 2017 LEICESTER
Last Updated on 3rd June 2020 by Bejal
I am a huge lover of art despite my very scientific background but more recently I have admired from a far street art. One of the instigators of this was the Premier league win for Leicester City in 2016. The city celebrated the victory of the projected underdogs and with the celebration came an artist from Harrow named Richard Wilson. He produced a 50 meter mural of the Leicester City Football team with the club’s ex-manager Claudio Ranieri.
After seeing this amazing street art you can imagine my delight when I found out that Leicester was hosting the ‘Bring the Paint 2017’event over the May Spring Bank Holiday weekend.
Bring the Paint took place on Saturday 27th May 2017 in the Cultural Quarter of Leicester City Centre. It was an international street art festival which is a collaboration on an epic scale, involving 150 international artists working across the Cultural Quarter and beyond. There were plenty of large scale murals in the quarter as well as legal spray sites around the city. Other festival attractions included live music, local jams, pop-up street art, window illustrations, food stalls and workshops.
This was billed as a once in a lifetime opportunity for Leicester and I was literally based in the centre of it! I had watched from my balcony, one of the artists (tag: Mono) working on a design for a week and could not wait for it to be unveiled on the day. I was not disappointed either (not that I would’ve been-mono literally worked all day and into the early hours of the night to pull of this true graffiti masterpiece. I also really enjoyed chatting to the Leicester based artist about his passion for arts and the opportunity the event has created for many up and coming graffiti artists.
Additionally the area also hosted live bands, artworks, music, skateboarding, breakdancing, BMX and a range of creative activities tailored to children and adults alike!
The festival was organised as a collab between De Montfort University and Leicester City Council, with HQ on the day being, The Cultural Quarters LCB Depot. The hub also hosted many of the activities on the day…
The LCB hosted 2 giant murals (one of which was Mono’s) on its large brick walls.
The street food at LCB was provided by Smoquered (Leicestershire based, serving South American style BBQ street food served from their 1973 Citroen H van), Big Daddies Diner (based in Lutterworth, these guys are a family run outlet providing the very best in gourmet hot dogs), Grays (based in the LCB depot, their aim is to bring fresh seasonal produce) and Bitsy’s Emporium (a sweet name in the Leicester cake vista, she’s made cakes for names such as McFLY and Ed Sheeran and also served up vegan and gluten free options!).
As if all that food action wasn’t enough, the LCB also featured a beat-boxer, looper and rap artist @MrShay_Artist and were showing ‘The Warrior’s’ movie in their pop-up cinema.
The aim of the festival was to inspire a legacy of artistic growth and collaboration within the artistic community. It definitely lived up reflecting Leicester’s diverse culture and art scene on an international level.
Other establishments in the Cultural Quarter also joined in with the event, such as The Curve Theatre who hosted graffiti workshops for children and The Exchange were on hand to supply alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages with delights from their menu. I absolutely loved the quirky touch of their kitch sofa’s and chairs which were laid out around Rutland Street and Orton Square.
The festival is an annual International event so who knows where the next Bring the Paint festival will be held. I thoroughly recommend it as the event was free with the only cost related to the delicious nosh on sale. If you’re a budding graffiti fan or a professional graffiti artist and want to enter, check out the social media channels below.
INSTAGRAM: BRING_THE-PAINT
TWITTER: @BRING_THE_PAINT
FACEBOOK: FACEBOOK.COM/BRINGTHEPAINTFEST
WEBSITE: BRINGTHEPAINT.CO.UK
À Bientôt…
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Zee
Wow! The art work is stunning, I drove past the Ibis on London Road and noticed the art work on the building there. I may have also looked at it for too long and missed the traffic light going green (whoops) x x
Bejal
Zeethe art work is incredible Zee! This particular piece is from two years ago but you can see the talent just get better and better. Haha that would have been me too at the traffic lights. It’s so good you just have to stop and stare! Thanks for dropping by Zee! xx