The highly anticipated Bring The Paint festival will transform Leicester’s streets from Monday 20th to Sunday 26th May 2024, turning the city centre into one of the world’s most impressive open-air galleries.
This year’s event marks the fourth instalment of the award-winning festival, which has the UK’s largest lineup of street artists. As well as showcasing artworks from national and local creatives, the festival will include international artists from all over the world, including Canada, Australia, and Brazil.
Since its inception in 2017, Bring The Paint has dramatically reinvented Leicester’s visual landscape. The city now has a growing reputation for eye-catching street art murals which can be spotted all over the city centre.
Over seven days, thousands of visitors will flock to Leicester to witness the creation of over thirty impressive murals across the city. As well as seeing the creation of these impressive permanent pieces of street art, audiences can get involved with a programme of events. Highlights include:
- Workshops: Engage with street art through hands-on workshops designed for all ages, including poetry workshops, zine making, upcycling spray cans and a street art photo walk.
- Tours: Take in the whole festival with a tour, hop on to a guided bicycle ‘90s Rave Ride’, or enjoy a more sedate walking tour with opportunities to meet the artists.
- Events: Enjoy a full day of music at the LCB depot, including Out of Joint Records takeover for full day of music on the Music Licence stage, an acoustic stage, sound system and more.
- Family-friendly activities: Lots of fun for all the family, including a family fun day at The Mill, spray painting, face painting, and Pedestrian’s DJ skills drop in, and the Red Bull Skate Park with DJ Truck on Jubilee Square
- Exhibitions: There are several exhibitions for art lovers to pop along to, including Glass on Glass x Lightwerk at Phoenix Cinema, Paint to Pixel x Repainting Subway Art at Leicester Museum & Gallery, and lots more.
There will be four main festival sites, where you can pick up a map and get exploring the festival:
- The Mill by Graffwerk (Frog Island): General info point and paint shop
- Haymarket: General info point and workshop hub
- Jubilee Square: Red Bull Skatepark
- LCB Depot: The Music Licence Stage
For those keen to get involved in creating street art themselves, several legal graffiti sites across the city can be used by anyone to paint, including walls along the canal, St. Margaret’s Underpass, Friday Street and more. Graffiti on any other surface than these sites is illegal and could result in prosecution.
Bring The Paint 2024 is supported by Arts Council England, BID Leicester, Leicester City Council, De Montfort University, PPL PRS Ltd, Platform Housing, Jake & Nayns, and Mills Nutrients. This year’s festival, inspired by Leicester’s identity as one of the most diverse cities in Europe, continues the theme of collaboration, bringing together artists from across the world to re-imagine this vibrant destination.
Don’t miss out on the chance to witness this spectacular event first-hand. For more information about the festival, including the full lineup, map, and list of mural locations, visit www.bringthepaint.co.uk.
