Glasgow art festival returns
The street art festival Yardworks took place in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, on 18 and 19 June for the first time since 2019. It was cancelled for the last two years because of the pandemic. Based at Glasgow’s SWG3 Galvanizers Yard, which is part of a former factory, Yardworks is Scotland’s largest street art and graffiti festival and once again featured a colourful collection of artworks.
Well-known street artists from around the world, such as Zurik, Balstroem and Bublegum, took part and worked alongside Scottish artists such as Smug, KMG and Mark Worst. Many of the street artists not only displayed their work but actually created it during the festival, allowing people to see the stages of how a piece was made.
The works were displayed on all sorts of surfaces, such as railway arches, walls and boards.
A selection of the board artworks will go on show at Glasgow University. Although some of the artwork is temporary, other pieces will remain there for years. Alongside the Yardworks festival was a printworks collection, which featured different artworks to buy. These included street-art prints (copies made from an original picture) and sculptures. Rachel Millar, an artist based in Glasgow, said, “It’s been so fun to work alongside so many other artists with really varied designs. I think that’s been a really big part of this year – there have just been so many different styles, and also a really good proportion of women painters as well as the graffiti lads.”
Glasgow hosted the first Yardworks festival at SWG3, on the banks of the river Clyde, in 2017 and it has already grown to be one of Europe’s biggest events dedicated to street art.