Glasgow’s Yardworks Festival is returning to SWG3 for 2024 to celebrate the city’s street artists

SWG3 is hosting Yardworks again for 2024.

Transcript

00:00 I'm Michela McManus and I'm Programme Coordinator for Yardworks Festival.

00:04 So Yardworks Festival is an international festival of street art and graffiti.

00:09 It happens every year at SWG3.

00:12 So we've got 120 artists coming down this weekend to paint the yard.

00:16 Each year they build a maze in the yard, so this year we've got containers that are making up the maze.

00:22 So at the moment it's a blank canvas and over the weekend 120 artists will come down and paint the whole thing.

00:28 So it becomes a kind of maze of graffiti and street art and illustration and everything.

00:33 So it started in 2017, Gaz Mac started it as a paint jam.

00:37 That was the first time it happened and since then it's kind of grown arms and legs and this year it's bigger and better than ever.

00:44 I think as the scene there's a real social aspect to it.

00:48 There's loads of different people are a part of it and it reaches so many different communities.

00:53 A lot of the work we do is kind of community outreach based.

00:56 So we speak to different people about what they want to see on their doorsteps and how we can bring that into the community.

01:01 I think Yardworks Festival reflects that as well.

01:04 So I started through doing workshops here, working with young people.

01:09 It was for COP26 a couple years ago and then since then I've worked with different communities.

01:15 So we work across part of Govan and York Hill.

01:18 So it's been working with them to kind of figure out what they want to see on their doorsteps.

01:22 And then organising the festival each year as well.

01:25 So that it kind of amounts to that each year.

01:27 So we're working with like everyone in the community throughout the year and then the festival happens.

01:31 Yardworks itself provides loads of different opportunities for artists.

01:34 It can be commercial opportunities and also like collaboration opportunities, working with each other.

01:39 There's loads of different people from different backgrounds.

01:42 So it's a really nice way for emerging artists to meet established artists.

01:46 Especially over the festival weekend because some people come down and get to paint alongside their heroes.