Giant Graffiti Jam in Leicester for the Bring the Paint festival

Leicesters Bring the Paint festival brought some of the biggest names in graffiti and street art to the city. Some of the murals they created you can see here, but this event wasn’t just about the top talents.

Indeed out of all the festivals, Leicesters Bring the Paint, actively encourages more local and emerging artists to come in and participate. The heart of this festival lays very much in graffiti culture. As such making walls available for visiting artists is a must.

Works from Anna Jaxe and Korp as part of the paint jam

Step forward the roads around Soar Lane. Sitting on the banks of the pretty river, vast swathes of former industrial land has been cleared. Neat piles of rubble are all that remains of the former buildings on the land which will form part of Leicesters new Riverside development. Now covered in wooden hoardings, it is prime paint jam territory.

Graffwerks

Graffwerks, the masterminds behind Bring the Paint, are already based here. Just around the corner, their new premises is a former canalside mill. The walls surrounding the HQ already boasts it’s fair share of graff. Particularly running along the canal towpath, much of it was refreshed during the event.

Street art from Simple G on the North Lock of the Grand Union Canal close to the Graffwerks HQ

It’s the hoardings surrounding the construction yards of Soar Lane though which provided the biggest canvas. Street upon street, wooden boards just waiting to be covered. They attracted artists from all over. A mixture of graffiti writers, muralists and fine artists. This was a place where anyone could come and be a part of the festival.

Soar Lane Hoardings

Now the Soar Street site is covered. Full of graffiti and street art. Covered over the period of the festival. There’s a lot to see. Indeed, given the amount of time we had to look around, I’m pretty certain we weren’t able to see it all. It’s also uncertain just how long the work will last. It’ll no doubt become a bit of an impromptu hall of fame. That is, prior to coming down once the riverside development is ready of course.

So check it out and take a look. We haven’t captured every piece, there were far too many for that. There’s a good selection though so take a look at some of our favourite pieces.

The roads around Soar Lane were visited as part of Leicesters Bring the Paint festival. All photos were taken on Sunday 26 May 2019.

The Soar Lane Paint Jam – Bring the Paint

Andy ‘Dice’ Davies
Peachzz and Si Mitchell
PAD
In Living Colour
Winniemmay
Justinks
Looking over the River Soar towards Frog Island and GraffHQ home of Graffwerks

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