Line-up, news and updates for this year's International Meeting of Styles.
When: 20th-21st August 2010
Where: secret location, North London
How much: free!
Graffiti huh? Remember when it was all the rage? And that was only a couple of years ago – people thought Banksy was actually interesting, graffiti seemed edgy and cool, and bankers rushed up the road to Shoreditch galleries like Black Rat Press, Forster and Pure Evil to spend their massive bonuses on aerosoled daubs to prove how in touch they were with some kind of mythical 'real' London.
Well now that we're in a recession the fleeting price hike in so-called 'street art' has left many people looking a tad silly. Kounter Kulture came and went, although Lazarides is still going strong, kind of. To be honest though, a purge is often a good thing – as those who were simply in it for the money will hopefully look elsewhere for their must-have investments – yachts are always popular, apparently. It means, you'd think, that the only people still involved in the whole graff thing are people who actually love it.
It's in this light that it's nice to hear that the International Meeting of Styles is coming back to London this August for its third year. Launched at the height of the graff boom, the self-described “biggest ever graffiti festival” has certainly outlasted several other street art institutions, and this year arrives at a secret North London location to showcase work by 60 graffiti artists from across Europe.
Last year saw hosts End of the Line take over Brick Lane (there's surely a link between street art becoming 'cool' and Brick Lane becoming terrible) but this year the venue's being kept under wraps. For now. But rest assured it'll have the same big old street party vibe as last year, when Rodney P and Skitz headlined. Oh, and it's all totally free – now that's recession-proof.
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