Upfest launches 2020 Crowdfunder

Europe’s largest free, live street and urban art festival Upfest needs your help to reach the £25,000 crowd-funding target to make this year’s festival happen.

Returning after a fallow year in 2019, Upfest has launched its crowdfunding campaign through Fundsurfer as the event looks set to return to the streets of South Bristol on 30 May – 1 June with its biggest ever line-up of local, national and international artists.

An earlier date isn’t the only change to Europe’s largest street art festival. For 2020, Upfest - crafted with Posca will take over Greville Smyth Park for the event’s first ever ‘green field’ festival, in addition to The Tobacco Factory, the original Upfest venue.

The boards and canvases previously found across a multitude of South Bristol venues will be brought together for a huge weekend-long celebration of street art in the spectacular park, the first time the space has been used for a festival.

The huge walls and murals traditionally painted during the festival weekend, will be created in the fortnight leading up to the festival weekend; giving more people the chance to witness these spectacular creations come to life first-hand. The murals will be complete for viewing while over 250 artists paint live alongside music stages and food and drink experiences.

Rewards vary from street photography tours with local photographer Colin Moody, original stencil works from Emily Donald and limited-edition prints from artists Mr Penfold, Sophie Long and Bex Glover.

Donators to the crowdfunding campaign can also receive places on a variety of classes and workshops, ranging from stencil, Posca, cross-stitch, graff and DJ’ing, as well as lots of Upfest merch including t-shirts, drawing pads, stickers and even a miniature wall and Posca pen pack.

The crowd funding programme enables Upfest to put on this free festival year after year, paying for the vital infrastructure it takes to manage the tens of thousands of visitors, as well as providing materials to the festivals 350 attending artists who all financially support themselves with travel and accommodation for the festival.

Stephen Hayles, Upfest founder said: “We’re incredibly proud of the growth of Upfest over the past 11 years. But as we’ve grown so too has the cost to run the festival and this year is our most ambitious to date.

“There are only a limited number of grands available to events, so naturally crowdfunding has always played a huge part in funding Upfest. Crowdfunding presents a perfect opportunity, not only to raise the much-needed cash to put on the festival, but to reward those who contribute in a variety of ways.”

To donate and grab these exclusive rewards please visit https://www.fundsurfer.com/crowdfund/upfest-2020. For more information visit the festival’s website www.upfest.co.uk or keep up to date on social media by following @Upfest on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.