Coloring the City: Creative Streets Festival in Košice

Creative Streets is a new street art festival in Košice. Its first edition took place early in May 2024. The event introduced national and foreign artists. Together, they created five huge murals coupled with some smaller ones. The festival had free entry, including special music guest on the last day.

Where

Creative Streets took place in the Sídlisko KVP district, a borough of Košice known for its vibrant community and dynamic urban landscape. The district already has some legal walls for graffiti artists on Klimkovičova Street. People started to build the borough in the early 1980s. Nowadays, the population is more than 23,000 people living on 1,78 square kilometers. Unlike the 80s and early 90s, there are also some primary art schools.

You can reach the borough from the city center or the train-bus station with bus number 19.

Artists

The festival features five gigantic murals and three smaller ones by 30 artists.

Among the artists featured at the festival were notable names such as Boogie SML, a renowned street artist from Switzerland known for his dynamic, bold pieces that have gained international acclaim. Fat Heat from Hungary creates vibrant murals that blend with augmented reality technology. Pauser from Czechia draws his inspiration from music, MTV culture, and symbolic imagery. The talented Polish duo Sebastian Bozek and Olgierd Szopinsky also left their mark with collaborative works. They often explore topics of urban identity and transformation. Together, these artists infused the streets of Košice with a rich diversity of styles and perspectives, transforming the city into a vibrant canvas of creativity and expression.

Slovakia was represented by Wall Design and Grint. Wall Design is also behind the project Playground. They painted eight playgrounds in eight different parts of Slovakia. Besides Košice, other cities include Bratislava, Sereď, Nové Zámky, Bánovce nad Bebravou, Banská Bystica, Martin, and Sabinov. But they are painted in a way that when you combine all of them, you will get one separate artwork – a map of Slovakia. Each playground design portrays features from its region.

List of streets and murals:

Big murals

Titogradská 2 @fatheat 

Starozagorská 21 @walldesign.sk 

ZŠ Starozagorská @pausrr 

Starozagorská 6 @boogiesml 

Wurmová 3 @bose_krk 

Smaller murals

Jana Pavla 2

Zombowa 1

ZUŠ Vlada Urbana

Here is the full map.

Deputy Mayor Roman Matoušek (Košice Party) explains that the festival could stir emotions:

“The festival was designed to spark some controversy at first. But ultimately, the result should impress people. It’s part of the celebrations for Košice City Day. City and our district reviewed the mural designs, and all the motifs were approved, even though there isn’t a unified theme since each artist paints something different.”

Some residents of the KVP housing estate in Košice were confronted with controversy at the beginning of the week when they saw an unusual sight. The side walls of several apartment buildings were covered with seemingly unrelated inscriptions and symbols. They were painted by an artist using a cherry picker.

“This is probably part of the street art festival, but I must be too old for that kind of festival. Uff, to destroy an insulated apartment building like this is terrible… It must be modern art, but what is the point? Horrible… A big contribution, especially since they need to be paid well… There’s a difference between painting and painting; this is pure disaster,“ were some comments from people under a published video showing the artist painting the block with various inscriptions.

Additional Program

As I have mentioned in the beginning, the Creative Streets festival also featured other artists from related fields. You could also attend a workshop, graffiti jam, or an exhibition of famous street artists.

The Creative Streets Festival brought the popular “Wednesdays in the City” concept from Bratislava to Košice. The party did not wait for Friday! On May 8th, visitors could experience a spectacular live show by singer Tina and her band at Zlatý Dvor. Tina, who hails from the local borough, once attended the primary school on Starozagorská Street. Now, the street is a vibrant canvas of graffiti.

After exploring all the incredible street art and enjoying the midweek party, the festival wrapped up on Sunday with a free live concert by rapper Separ in the unique setting of Drocárov Park. In addition to the music, there was an exhibition. Works from artists like Smart, Kaisy, Grint, and others were hanging on the walls.

The vibrant artwork and lively performances left a lasting impression on the community. With such enthusiasm and creativity on display, anticipation is already building for next year’s festival, promising even more innovative expressions of art and culture.