Graffiti festival to brighten industrial spaces

The artists behind Lick of Paint festival have run graffiti workshops with students at Sheffield Hallam University

A new street art festival aims to bring "high-quality public art" to Sheffield's post-industrial landscape, its organisers have said.

As part of Lick of Paint Festival, which takes place on Saturday and Sunday, a "legal wall" has been set up for artists to graffiti at Club de Padel – a new sports venue in Neepsend.

Co-founder Megan Russell, who works under the name Peachzz, said the festival was set up to encourage street art in the north of England.

"We've been to graffiti art festivals, we've seen the benefit of what they can do for the community and we just want to bring that to Sheffield because she's crying out for one," she said.

The festival also features free workshops, talks and events, including cycle and walking tours of the city centre – with venues at Millennium Gallery, Fitzalan Square, Castle Market, Derek Dooley Way and Kelham Island.

Ms Russell set up the festival with artist Alastair Flindall, who works under the name Neck of the Wood Studio.

She said: "We have lots of artists painting over the weekend and our main thing is that the artists are paid.

"We are also very community focused, so everything's free to sign up for or there's lots of drop-in stuff that people can do.

"Then we've also got this legal wall where we're having a jam spot where we've opened it up to artists to come and paint."

Sheffield has become popular with street artists because of its post-industrial landscape, Ms Russell says

"When I first started painting I would be painting in these industrial abandoned buildings," Ms Russell said.

"They're incredibly dangerous. That's what you would go and do - you would go in to these places, you don't know if there's asbestos or anything, and that's where you would learn to paint.

"So one of our goals has always been to have legal walls for people to use. It's easy to access and we're really lucky that we've managed to do it in the first year.

"It's a really nice space, really big walls, so lots of people will just put on their own little jams there."

She said the legal wall would be opened to people on a first-come first-served basis and organisers hoped to see Sheffield and Yorkshire artists take part.

She added that Sheffield had become known for its street art, with artists such as Phlegm, Rocket and Faunagraphic all coming from the city.

"Sheffield has a very rich graffiti culture because of its industrial past, there's so many spaces here," she said.

"And that's why it's really crying out to have another festival where we can put some paint on walls and make some parts of it a bit more colourful."

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