Amsterdam hosting world’s first open-to-all street art festival this weekend
The world’s first open-to-all street art festival will take place in Amsterdam during the Open Monument Days this weekend. Events will be held throughout the city on Saturday and Sunday, offering people the chance to meet several well-known street artists, including The London Police, a popular collective whose murals can be seen around the world, including their homebase of Amsterdam.
The annual Open Monument Days are held every September. Over 5,500 monuments across the Netherlands will be open to visitors for free during the weekend.
The street art event, called Urbanites United, will feature a Paint & Beer festival in Buiksloterdijk on both days from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. A series of other scheduled items includes a live painting session by artist Paul Watty at Hollandsche Manege on the Overtoom on Saturday.
The London Police also spoke about the deep-rooted history of street art in Amsterdam. “Street art and graffiti have always influenced the city. In the last decade or so, bigger murals have started to dominate, but it’s always possible to find artists collaborating in small ways with the streets. Sometimes it’s the smaller, harder-to-find installations and works that are more exciting to discover," the team said in a press release.
Anyone wanting to learn more about street art can join a four-hour guided tour from Sint Nicolaasstraat through the city center to NDSM-werf in the north of the city. Street art films will also be shown at Cinema De Vlugt in Amsterdam Nieuw-West.
Urbanites United will provide live updates of their events over the weekend on their website. The organization has also published a street art map showing the locations of street art pieces around the city.
“Amsterdam is the street art capital of the world. It’s the first city in the world to map all of its street art, partly because street art in this city is bigger than many of us realize,” said Anna Stolyarova, founder and director of the Street Art Museum Amsterdam.
