Yardworks Festival 2019
Yardworks has come of age! With the festival’s reputation having well and truly spread, 2019’s event felt like a key fixture in the graffiti and street art calendar, continuing to change public perceptions towards the art form and the artists involved by showcasing their ability to create these highly skilled works in such a short space of time.
2019’s event saw attendance from the global elite of street art. To name but a few, this included Smug, Does (The Netherlands), Insane51 (Greece), Saturno (Spain), Mr Baker (Germany), Balstreom (Denmark), Wellin (Denmark), and, from the UK, Voyder, RogueOne, Mark Worst, Gent, Ziner, Bonzai, Sled, Soda, Curtis Hylton and Philth.
Thanks again to the GCC Twin-City fund, in 2019 we were delighted to welcome two artists from Marseilles, Mademoiselle Maurice and Rea One.
Meanwhile, inside the Galvanizers, Stirling-based artist Mia McGregor led the hugely popular Cubes project again, with children painting on large cardboard sheets — and incidentally taking part in Europe's largest participatory art project.
About Yardworks Festival
Since launching in 2017, it’s safe to say the word is now very much out, with the annual Yardworks festival now attracting the global elite of the street arts and graffiti scene. Highlights so far have included the graffiti maze (200 metres of super smooth concrete and steel, painted live in front of the audience), Mia McGregor’s global-participation art project Cubes, a talk from author, photographer and subway artist Martha Cooper, and the commissioning of the huge, Classical-art-inspired mural by PichiAvo that you see today in our Galvanizers.
Then there’s the guests. 2019’s international artist list included Smug, Does (Netherlands), Insane51 (Greece), Saturno (Spain), Mr Baker (Germany), Balstreom (Denmark), Wellin (Denmark). From the UK, we had Voyder, Rogue, Mark Worst, Gent, Ziner, Bonzai, Sled, Soda, Curtis Hylton and Philth.
For local artists, it’s a chance to learn from the best, meet their heroes, and get inspired by what people are doing elsewhere. For the audience, it’s a weekend of witnessing murals being created live, from scratch, in front of you, child-friendly art workshops and activities, or just drinking it all in with a pint and street food in hand. For Glasgow, it’s a visual celebration of the city’s artistic ambition, its style, and the importance it places on nurturing — and sharing — the joy of creativity.
Outside of the festival, it puts the city on the map as a stomping ground for international artists, who drop in to SWG3 year-round to mark a piece of our territory in their own inimitable style. For local artists, it represents something absolutely essential to the community: a place to express themselves in a safe and legal space.