LOOK UP Portsmouth is back for its 3rd year, bringing together the best international, national, and local artists to make brilliant permanent works of art across the city.
It’s a street art festival taking place across 2 days on the 12th and 13th of September, which artists will be creating murals and such on walls across the city. Don’t panic, they only ever paint with permission, so the side of your house is safe, but if you have a wall you want painted, you can always offer it to them. Seriously, they issue a ‘walls needed’ callout each year.
This isn’t a typical festival where you turn up to a location and get involved – it’s spread out across the whole city. That said, there is a festival map showing who will be painting where and when, so you can do a sort of tour and watch the artists at work.
The main hub of the festival is Charter Academy, where workshops in DJing and smartphone filmmaking will be taking place, plus slam poetry performances, singers, spray can workshops, and local bands. So there is loads to do as well as loads to see.
Paint Jam – 6th September – Cosham
As a sort of warm up to the festival proper, the LOOK UP team are having a Paint Jam on the 6th of September at the hoardings on Sundridge Close in Cosham.
It’s a ‘locals only’ event, although I’m sure they will welcome anyone who turns up to support. It’s a great opportunity to get some one on one time with the artists if you have questions, etc.
Around a dozen of the local artists who are part of the festival will be there, with headline murals by Winne May and Fark being revealed on Southampton Road.
There is also a children’s spray paint workshop being held at 1pm. It’s taking place at Portsdown Primary School, and kids from 10 to 18 can learn the basics of making art with spray paint. You need to book tickets if you want to go, although walk up spaces may be available at 10:30am and 3pm (there is no additional information on this unfortunately).
The really good news? It’s free!