I went to Bristol’s Upfest but completely missed Blackpool’s “Sand Sea & Spray” which in it’s first edition brought to Blackpool some of the most impressive international artists from the spray scene…
A group of 40 artists – who jetted in from everywhere from Chile and Spain to Devon – spent two days transforming four venues & leaving their mark on Blackpool: from the wall of the North Pier’s Sun Lounge to a giant toaster emblazoned across Talbot Road Bus Station.
Organiser Robin Ross said: “The event has been four years in planning. It has been a long time coming and we’ve got artists from all over the world. There’s a lot of crazy people and I’m over the moon. We’ve had such a good response from the public – people have been going in the bus station and just saying ‘wow’. I wanted to prove that Blackpool could – it’s my attitude that if we don’t do it nobody else will.”
The festival is the largest gathering of graffiti artists in Europe this year, and Chilean Otto Schade was delighted to be part of it (well… that’s always a matter of discussion, but from the looks of the graffiti sizes, it’s pretty impressive).
Arriving in Blackpool for the week end are artists from Canada, Chile, Spain, France, Germany, Austraila, Greece and all over the UK.
Indigo from Canada is making a 10.000 mile round trip to paint and is one of the leading ladies of Streeet Art and to prove that the girls can paint are Kashink from France and Faunagraphic from Sheffield. Osch from Chile who will be painting a replica Mini on North Pier Jokin and Mikel from Spain have never painted in the UK before The Krah from Greece are highlighted in the V&A Tour of the UK the UK contigent feature legends of Urban Art including; inkie and SPQR from Bristol, BestEver and the Toasters, and Keminifink with Title from the Midlands.
(rest of the videos on Obiwansi’s youtube channel)
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