Ireland's Waterford Walls Festival And Why You Should Be Going

One of Ireland’s oldest cities, Waterford is welcoming back the annual International Street Art festival, Waterford Walls to the city.
Waterford Walls Festival And Why You Should Be Going
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Presented by the Walls Project, the Irish street art festival will see founder Edel Tobin and her team welcome international and national street artists to Waterford, who will transform the city over the duration of the festival into Ireland’s largest and most accessible outdoor gallery.
Alongside the live painting activities, the festival has planned daily guided street art tours of the murals over the 46-day duration of the festival allowing you to see some of the street artists in action while working on their walls as well as taking in the street art and murals from the previous editions of the festival.
Street Art In Waterford, Ireland
With frequent flights departing from UK airports to Dublin Airport, traveling to Waterford from the UK is extremely easy. From Dublin, you can choose to either hire a car and drive to Waterford or like us take the two-hour train journey from Dublin’s Heuston Station along the east coast to Waterford’s Plunkett Station with the national rail company Iarnród Éireann.
As we head into the sixth edition of the Waterford Walls Street Art Festival, the city already boasts an impressive street art and mural collection from the first five editions of the festival.
With local planning permissions for murals hindering the efforts to develop street art in other Irish cities, Waterfords street art collection continues to grow and this year's edition of the festival will see some 13 additional new works created, making it the must-visit Irish city for the street art enthusiasts.
With local planning permissions for murals hindering the efforts to develop street art in other Irish cities, Waterfords street art collection continues to grow and this year's edition of the festival will see some 13 additional new works created, making it the must-visit Irish city for the street art enthusiasts.
Alongside the live painting activities, the festival has planned daily guided street art tours of the murals over the 46-day duration of the festival allowing you to see some of the street artists in action while working on their walls as well as taking in the street art and murals from the previous editions of the festival.

Street Art In Waterford, Ireland
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Exploring the murals of Waterford Walls in the city are easily accessible by foot with the main focus of the festival murals located within the boundaries of the city.
There are a number of pieces painted on walls a little further outside the city on the other side of the harbor and we took a short taxi ride last year to photograph these locations.
Printed festival maps will be available from the Waterford Walls festival HQ, located at 37 Mayor’s Walk as well as other key city locations.
Pictured above is one of two impressive long-running works by Glasgow based Australian street artist Smug.
2020 Waterford Walls Festival Artists
Printed festival maps will be available from the Waterford Walls festival HQ, located at 37 Mayor’s Walk as well as other key city locations.
The map will guide you around the city, allowing you to see the new works and possibly some of the artists at work on those murals. A digital copy of the new map is also on the Waterford Walls website here should you want to plan your route out in advance.
Waterford Walls Greenway Art Bus Trail

Waterford Walls Greenway Art Bus Trail
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Alongside the mural works with in the city center, there are a number of works located on the Waterford Greenway which we have yet to see. The Waterford Greenway is a 46 km cycling and walking trail along an old railway line that runs between Waterford and Dungarvan.

Pictured above is one of two impressive long-running works by Glasgow based Australian street artist Smug.
2020 Waterford Walls Festival Artists
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For the 2020 edition of the festival, Waterford Walls have once again invited both national and international street artists to Waterford who will create new works on walls and buildings across the city adding to the murals from the previous editions of the festival.
The 2020 line-up sees the return of some festival favorites as well as some new exciting artists joining the line-up:
Curtis Helton (UK) / Shane O’Driscol (IRE) / Russ (FR) / Aches (IRE) / Maser (IRE) / Magda Karol (IRE) / Garreth Joyce (IRE) / Sign Of Power (IRE) / Case Maclaim (GER) / Nean (BEL) / Beerens (FR) / Maker & Land (ESP) / Dima (BLR)
Curtis Helton (UK) / Shane O’Driscol (IRE) / Russ (FR) / Aches (IRE) / Maser (IRE) / Magda Karol (IRE) / Garreth Joyce (IRE) / Sign Of Power (IRE) / Case Maclaim (GER) / Nean (BEL) / Beerens (FR) / Maker & Land (ESP) / Dima (BLR)
With frequent flights departing from UK airports to Dublin Airport, traveling to Waterford from the UK is extremely easy. From Dublin, you can choose to either hire a car and drive to Waterford or like us take the two-hour train journey from Dublin’s Heuston Station along the east coast to Waterford’s Plunkett Station with the national rail company Iarnród Éireann.
A return train fare to Waterford from Dublin is on average around 30Euro per person. For those of you traveling on a budget, there are also a number of buses servicing Waterford from Dublin with prices starting at 19Euro for a return fare.
Waterford Street Art Gallery
Artwork by French street artist Mantra, painted for the 2018 edition of the Waterford Walls Festival.

Irish street artist Caoilfhionn Hanton

Dubai based street artist Fats Patrol
Dubai based Indo-Canadian street artist Fats Patrol sat in front of her completed mural painted for the 2018 edition of the festival.
Irish artist Joe Caslin pictured below having completed his large scale paper-based work above.
London Street Art Dan Kitchener
Waterford Street Art Gallery
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Take a look below at a selection of the Waterford street art and mural photographs we took during our previous city visits. This is just a small selection of what you can expect to see on your visit to the city.
London Graffiti artist Mr. Cenz


London Graffiti artist Mr. Cenz
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London based graffiti artists Mr. Cenz, a regular on the streets of East London was one of the 2018 invited artists working their magic on the cities walls.
Berlin-based Irish street artist Humble Writerz aka Mark Finn at work on his mural for a previous edition of the Waterford Walls Street A

Berlin-based Irish street artist Humble Writerz aka Mark Finn at work on his mural for a previous edition of the Waterford Walls Street A

Artwork by French street artist Mantra, painted for the 2018 edition of the Waterford Walls Festival.

Irish street artist Caoilfhionn Hanton
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Pictured above is the work of Irish street artist Caoilfhionn Hanton. Based in Waterford she has painted at murals at a number of previous editions of the festival.
French Street Artist Ador
Painted back in 2017 and still looking fresh the work of French street artist Ador is instantly recognizable for his signature kooky cartoon-style characters.
Irish Street Artist Omin
Irish artist Omin has painted at both three previous editions of the Waterford Walls festival.

French Street Artist Ador
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Painted back in 2017 and still looking fresh the work of French street artist Ador is instantly recognizable for his signature kooky cartoon-style characters.
Irish Street Artist Omin
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Irish artist Omin has painted at both three previous editions of the Waterford Walls festival.
Dubai based street artist Fats Patrol
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Dubai based Indo-Canadian street artist Fats Patrol sat in front of her completed mural painted for the 2018 edition of the festival.

Irish artist Joe Caslin pictured below having completed his large scale paper-based work above.





London Street Art Dan Kitchener
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Another regular on the city streets of East London, Essex based street artist Dan Kitchener stops to pose for a photograph on completion of his large scale mural in Waterford painted in the city back in 2018.
Pictured above is one of two spacemen themed murals to be seen in Waterford painted by Irish artist Shane Sutton.


Pictured above is one of two spacemen themed murals to be seen in Waterford painted by Irish artist Shane Sutton.
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