Yardworks Festival 2021
With the global pandemic putting a halt on large gatherings, in 2021 Yardworks went small-scale, hosting a miniature version of our internationally-renowned graffiti and street art to coincide with one of our key projects in SWG3’s neighbouring community of Govan.
The sense of festival and celebration continued, with real-time mural creation from some of the incredibly talented community of Yardworks artists, live music courtesy of some of the local people involved in the Yardworks Govan project, and interactive workshops including a live drawing screen and graffiti wall.
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.