Bristol UpFest 2017

Upfest actually happened over the recent weekend, but since we were at Druid Camp at that time we thought we'd have a wander into Bedminster in Bristol today to see how it looked now all the painters had left. 

Of course, they hadn't. It takes a long time to complete some of these wonderful installations and here and there were artists and here and there were scaffolds still in place. The place smells of aerosol cans, and indeed there are still plenty of them rolling around. It's not an entirely tidy place.

Upfest, if you've not encountered it, is the largest street art (read: graffiti) festival in Europe (we're still in Europe!) and takes place in Bedminster and Southville in Bristol. I lived in this area for much of the eighties, and it still feels like a familiar stomping ground, even though most of the pubs have gone and some of the open spaces too.

I've managed to come back with more than forty "keepers", and you can see them on Flickr by clicking this link. There are some spectacular art pieces, and they do seem to have found their home here in lovely old, poor, run down South Bristol.

The shot above is of the pub once known to me as The Star but now seemingly renamed as The Steam Crane - perhaps after the crane in Bristol Dock. You could, back in the day, often have an entertaining, if potentially bruising, cider in there... Could be worse though, in the late 1800's and then called The Bull, one customer was mauled to death by a tiger! No, really.

It's Brizzle, innit.