Street art festival celebrates evolution of graffiti

Part of the inaugural Art Macao initiative, Outloud Street Art Festival was held over the past weekend with the theme of “back to the future”.

This year the graffiti festival not only marked its third edition, but also its incorporation in the city-wide mega event, Art Macao. The event is led by the Macao Government Tourism Office and the Cultural Affairs Bureau under the purview of the Secretariat of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture.

The Outloud Festival was held at the Inner Harbor area of Praça de Ponte e Horta as well as in the streets and alleys around the plaza. It also made use of the abandoned cargo pier and warehouse opposite the plaza.

According to the organizer, the festival was held partly with the hope to revive the older district of the city.

About a century ago, the Praça de Ponte e Horta and its immediate vicinity was a bustling district to Macau, filled with moving people and cargo.

“Back to the future”, being this year’s theme, does not exactly relate to the future, but rather the past. The organizer explained they wanted to bring the public back to the 1980s when graffiti was considered a subculture.

The event brought viewers on a tour in which graffiti realized as an art form and widely accepted by the public. AL