Up Here Festival announces 4 new Sudbury murals

Downtown Sudbury will be getting a few more splashes of colour in the coming weeks.

Up Here, Sudbury's urban art and music festival, has announced the four artists who will be painting murals on local buildings for the event's fifth anniversary. 

Festival co-founder Christian Pelletier said the group enlisted guest curator KWEST to attract RISK and TRAV MSK, two California-based street artists who will join local artists Laura Peturson and Matti Lehtela.

"[RISK] is one of the one of the legends in the street art scene," Pelletier said. "He started off in California in the late 70s and really pioneered street art in California. It's a really big deal that we're getting him."

"He's done a few pieces in Canada and we're looking at doing probably one of the biggest pieces in Canada for the festival this year."

Pelletier said festival organizers are excited about welcoming him.

"It's just very colourful washes, just washes of colour with really big gradients. It's just eye candy," Pelletier said. "It's absolutely phenomenal. He doesn't work with traditional walls. He really likes to take over multiple walls so different different angles and different aspects of it, and really covering as much surface as he can."

The location of each mural will be announced later in July, festival organizers said.

The festival also announced it was teaming up with Sudbury Hydro for the third year of its Power Up Project. The utility company will provide electrical utility boxes as canvasses for six local artists, including Brent Hardisty (Niiwin Binesi), Lümen Moratz, Brandon James McBain, Nic Derro, Chantal Abdel-Nour and Ivy Ireland.

The festival will also feature three days of concerts, including Snotty Nose Rez Kids, ESG and Milk & Bone.

For the complete lineup, visit Up Here's website.