Review of Cans Street Art Festival in London

May 8th, 2008

Cans festival via Supertouch

This past weekend, the Cans Festival took over an empty railway tunnel near Waterloo train station in London. This massive graffiti exhibition showcased the work of famous British graffiti artist Banksy as well as more than 40 other artists including Bsas Stencil, James Dodd (dlux), Ron English, and John Grider.

“Biggest” Banksy exhibition in London tunnel [Reuters]
The Cans Festival [The Cans Festival]
Banksy [Banksy]
The Cans Festival- London 3/4/5/ May 2008 [NowPublic]


Cans festival via Supertouch

Perhaps the most amazing thing about this exhibit was that anybody who arrived with paint and a stencil was permitted to add to it himself. The organizers of the festival, however, clearly stated the rules of adding to the exhibit on the event’s website, www,thecansfestival.com. Artists were required to use stencils and register when they arrived in order to be assigned a place to paint. An impressive 28,544 people visited, 623 of whom painted on the walls themselves. While police patrolled the tunnel vigilantly throughout the duration of the exhibit nobody was charged with criminal damage. On Monday, the final day of the exhibit, famed artist Peter Chappell arrived to add to the exhibit himself. Chappell is most famously known for the “George Davis is Innocent” graffiti in the 70’s that Bansky features on his website’s Manifesto.


Cans festival via Supertouch


Cans festival via Supertouch


Cans festival via Supertouch