Upfest: spray paint and music

Fantastic! the music has at last stopped!

Upfest has been happening in venues and car-parks and streets all around here, all weekend.   One of the main sites is in a yard immediately behind my house, so I can see all the painting going on from the back windows.  And hear the music!   

This was the view from my little back bedroom.

This is how the website describes it all:

Welcome to our new festival website for Upfest Bristol 2012, by using the buttons above your be able to find all the information of this years festival, from where to find toilets too the location of your favourite artists. Upfest Europe’s largest urban art festival has announced the impressive international line up for its fifth year and has unveiled plans to take over the cultural home of UK graffiti, Bristol.

This year Upfest has attracted over 250 of the most groundbreaking graffiti artists the world has to offer. Descending onto Southville, Bristol they will consume over two miles of the city to paint live for three days and create over 20,000 square foot of artwork. Along side all of your favourite artists, DJ's, Beatboxers and Bands your find a great selection of genuinely affordable artwork.

It is a brilliant festival of urban street art, and I am amazed and impressed at the range and quality of the work on show - all done with spray cans and very quickly.  There have been loads and loads of people about, even today when the rain has hardly stopped.   Quite a lot of the shops on adjacent North Street have had their shutters painted, which will no doubt help cheer the place up, especially the far end which is still a bit neglected.  

But the music has been loud and relentless with a heavy and repetitive bass beat all day long since 11.00 am.  So it is bliss indeed that, on the stroke of 9 pm, the music has stopped - or at least, it has retreated indoors to the Tobacco Factory and several of the other pubs and bars along North Street.   

Here are just a couple of images taken from the work in the yard immediately behind my house....

Tomorrow there will be more - and the weather forecast is OK for Monday, so the painters and spectators should have a much nicer day.   But what a turn-out, even today in the pouring rain: the organisers and local traders must all be very pleased.  

Retrofit City

Walking home from college I called in to The Architecture Centre on Narrow Quay, to look at the exhibition called Bristol: Retrofit City.  

This was a small but extremely well presented and interesting show, looking at how some of the city's old and otherwise neglected buildings have been revamped and re-vitalised through sensitive architecture and careful development.  Not everyone in the city would agree, of course, and Bristol has had at least is share of planning horrors, and some others only narrowly averted over the pat few decades.  But the examples on show in this exhibition were impressive, and uplifting in terms of confirming that there is scope, and hope, for really sustainable and imaginative alternatives to Tesco-style new building.  

Southville Saturday, 19th May

I am so lucky to live where I do!  Today has been a lovely mixture of neighbours, community, art and gardening, and music still to come.  And all within a few minutes walk of my house.

This weekend it is the Southbank Bristol Arts Trail (website link here) and for two days there are lots and lots of houses and community venues open to the public, showing art work and crafts of all kinds, for sale and just for admiring.  I have spent a happy afternoon peeping into artists'  houses and discovering treasures and surprises.

Alongside the arts trail, the North Street Spring Fayre has taken over the shopping street at the end of my road, and it has been carnival time, all day, with the road closed to traffic (it was markedly quiet this morning!), lots of stalls in the road, selling and inviting and informing and entertaining people passing through - and lots of yummy food on offer too.  

But because I am a hardworking soul, I had started the day with a couple of hours on my newly acquired allotment, which is about a mile away, and is in a lovely open site with a clear view to the Clifton suspension bridge, and slow goods trains occasionally running alongside.  I have only had the allotment for about a month, and the very wet weather has meant I have had far too little time on it so far.  But I am making progress with digging, hoeing, and clearing it, and soon it will be fit for planting.  Today I explored the allotment shop and bought seeds for peas and beans, chard and beet, and courgettes.  And some lupins for green manure, so I can get growing on the whole plot even though it is rather late in the season to be starting out.   I haven't had a vegetable garden for about 25 years, so it is pretty much like starting from scratch.  But I've been very lucky in inheriting a plot (well, a half-plot to be honest) which has not been abandoned for very long and is in essentially very good condition.  So I hope that I can concentrate this summer on getting to know it, growing a few easy things, and planning for a more adventurous season next year.

This is the allotment looking east....my territory runs as far as the huge rhubarb patch, half way down on the left hand side.

This was how it looked on the day I was given it, at the end of a very sunny March.  Since then it rained almost constantly for 3 weeks, so I was unable to do anything at all.  But in the last couple of weeks I've managed to get down several times, and now I have dug and cleared quite a bit, and I'm ready for planting.  My friend Moira has already planted some potatoes (she is sharing some of the plot as it is more than big enough for me).

And this is the plot looking west, including enormous compost bins, beyond which there is another patch of about 8 ft which has been languishing under black plastic, is clean and clear, and is just longing for me to do something really interesting with....watch this space!

Tonight I'm off to hear Charles Hazlewood and the Army of Generals in a concert of Purcell and Handel at St George's.  Treats all day long.