During our trip to England, we spent a weekend in Bristol, the wickedly cool city where Mike’s brother and sister-in-law live. Every summer, Bristol hosts Upfest, the largest street art and graffiti festival in Europe. This year, 400 artists from 70 countries were selected to fill the streets of Bristol with their beautiful creations.
Tens of thousands of people come to see the artists in action each year, and this year we finally got to go, too.
This is the second year that our incredibly talented sister-in-law, Bex Glover, was chosen to be one of the festival artists. Bex is painter, illustrator, and mural artist with a whimsical style influenced by nature. I’ve always loved her work, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen her in action. It was fascinating to watch.
I love seeing an artist’s creative process!
Way to go, Bex. You’re a rock star.
While Bex was painting, we took the kids around the rest of the festival to see the other artists’ creations. The artwork was brilliant, and I loved the impact of hundreds of paintings filling the streets with color. But in my typical way, my favorite part was all the people-watching. Bristol has a funky, gritty, artistic vibe that makes for fascinating street scenes.
Related posts:
Scenes from our trip to exquisite, historic, and charming Somerset, England
I finally got to see Cornwall, and it was even better than I’d imagined
My family’s picture-perfect summer vacation to England and Wales
Scenes from my whirlwind trip through New York City
Chalk on the Water: I was a judge at Lake Anne’s chalk festival
