Street artists lined up for London Mural festival ready to paint the town red and maybe yellow

PUBLISHED: 17:00 24 September 2019 | UPDATED: 17:31 25 September 2019

Mike Brooke

London's first mural festival getting off the ground in 2020. Picture: Global Street Art

Global Street Art

First of many murals across London is this 3,500sq ft artwork unveiled at Canning Town. Picture: Global Street Art

The festival sets out to use London "as a vast canvas", painting a minimum of 20 new large-scale murals and staging a weekend of activity at Hackney Wick and Here East artist and digital business communities.

But you don't have to wait 12 months to see the artwork.

A giant 3,500sq ft mural has been unveiled at the £600million Hallsville Quarter development at Canning Town to mark the announcement, one of the largest ever seen in east London, created by artist Gary Stranger and appropriately called From The Ground Up.

"This is the first wall of many I'm hoping to see pop-up across London," Gary said. "Now London can take its rightful place of global mural festivals."

'High there!' Gary is up the wall trying to finish his giant mural. Picture: Global Street Art

The festival in September next year celebrates art and creative communities while introducing the public to a new way to experience one of the world's biggest art movements.

Lee Bofkin, co-founder of Global Street Art which is staging the festival, said: "Graffiti street art has matured in the last 50 years as an art-form and subculture, giving rise to a major global mural movement.

"Mural festivals have been established in cities around the world, but not London—until now."

More than 100 street artists will be out painting the town red and all colours of the rainbow.

Artist Gary Stranger and his finished mural at Canning Town. Picture: Global Street Art

Live music is being performed and parties held on September 5 and 6, attracting art to east London from all over Britain and the world.

The London Mural Festival was the idea of Global Street Art's Woody Anderson, who said: "Hackney Wick and Here East are natural locations for our first festival with their creative communities. We are interested to hear from anyone who'd like to get involved."

The festival also has a two-week programme of activities with talks, workshops, film screenings, gallery shows and street art tours.

Confirmed artists joining Gary Stranger include Ben Eine, Camille Walala, Dale Grimshaw, Fanakapan, Mr Doodle, Mr Cenz, Pref and Seb Lester. More are being announced over the coming months. Applications for artists open in the New Year.