[Gallery] First Swindon street art festival hailed as huge success

The first Swindon Paint Fest was successfully held over the course of the weekend (14 -16 October).

Its main aim was to showcase and initiate murals and street art into the town centre and beyond, as part of the town’s regeneration and bring a positive change in people’s perception of Swindon.

The event was organised by artists Caryn Koh, Sally Taylor and Organiser Helen Salter on behalf of Artsite - an artist led self-funded charity, in partnership with Inswindon BID.

A whole host of local artists took part in live painting sessions, hosted workshops, and exhibited their artwork for the Swindon public to see. 

There were also pop-up shops and an artist sharing session hosted by Artsite, and the Swindon Hub. 

A spokesperson for the Swindon Paint Fest team said: "The event has been a resounding success! It was indeed more than I could have imagined it being our first street art festival in Swindon. However, it was undeniable to community effort that rallied together to make it work and the amazing artists that has graced us with their talents."

The Paint Fest team also had a long list of people and organisations to thank for the success of this first-ever event.

The spokesperson added:"I would like to thank my co-organisers, Sally Taylor and Helen Salter, who were instrumental in making this event work. First and foremost my sister Eunice Koh for being my rock during the process of planning and running this whole event.

"Thank you to Artsite for making this possible, to Hannah Moreton for helping set up our GoFund Me. Also thanks go to Anita Bellinger and the team from Inswindon BID for continuously believing in the arts and what we do, and to the Ambassadors of Inswindon as well Howard and Richie for being our support system during our time painting in town centre.

"Thank you to Ed Poster, Steve Ellis and the whole Read and Weep crew for giving guidance and experience as well as sharing their amazing skills in this project. Another thank you must be said to Swindon Children's Scrapstore for donating tons of paint to us for the artists.

"We also want to say thank you to Shaun of Rudi’s bar for reaching out and providing food and beverages to the artists and team during that weekend. To Dominos for providing the pizzas to the artists. To Justin from MECA for the donation and the beautiful canvas on the building. To all of the amazing artists who’s been a part of it and gracing us with their talent.

"Thank you to Paul Exton and Dayna Baxter for the wonderful duo exhibition they’ve put together in Artsite. Thank you to Pearl Lucia Barcoe who’s in charge of Swindon Hub for the same vision and in providing a lovely venue for the pop up shop and amazing venue for the group exhibition and artist sharing session.

"Thank you to the Trinity Collective for setting up their lovely shop. Thank you to Ken White who’s our well respected muralist and painter artist for having us listen to his experiences, there was a massive turnout for his sharing session and was a huge success as well. Tony Hillier for invigilating the session with Ken White. To SLART, the Redcliffe Collective and the guest artists for their project in creating a community effort with their work and art in Rodbourne."

"We want to say thanks to the community of people and residents who’s taken care of our artists whilst they paint at their spots, making them feel welcomed in Swindon and well taken care of as they create their masterpieces. Thanks to the team at Wharf Green, Sally, Mark and Joe, for putting these boards together beautifully and making these canvases for artists to paint.

"A further thank you to Swindon PA Hire for the awesome speakers, and deejays Paul Carroll, Luke Knotts, Cybernetic and Matt Baila for taking time to play and create the atmosphere as the featured artists painted live."

The Paint Fest team say the painted boards will be kept safely for now as they will have conversations and discussions with Inswindon on the best place to have them displayed, and the next step forward, as they would require to obtain permissions in making that happen.

Leader of Swindon Borough Council, Councillor David Renard, said: “I’m very excited to see these hoardings in the town centre come alive with the great work Artsite have done here and across the town centre.

“It’s excellent to see more artwork coming through and I encourage everyone to get out and see all of these amazing pieces of art that have been created.

“We want to make the town centre a more welcoming place and these kinds of community events are a big help towards that goal.”

Those interested can find more information about Swindon Paint Fest via Instagram at www.instagram.com/swindonpaintfest and Facebook at www.facebook.com/swindonpaintfest.