A well branded cultural initiative brings for the second edition a festival of art, music, craft beer, food trucks, workshops to the village of Penelles in Spain, including 900 square meters of murals in this town with farmer roots and low one story buildings.

It has become almost a formula for cities and municipalities to inject a youthful culture and energy into an area – as you may expect, it is about striking a balance and treating all of your artists well and creating a mixture of events and opportunities for the people to engage with the scene. Even when the population of your Catalonian town is a little less than 500 people.

Fonoll Mas. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

GarGar2 just happened in May with about 30 artists displaying public art in disciplines that touch on almost all of the currently used styles on the street; aerosol, wild style, figurative, illustration, neo-realism, photorealist, commercially slick, folk heroism, calligraphy, text based, pop art, abstract optics, political commentary, brush paint, stencil, craft, crochet, primitive sculpture… Organizers have studied the websites and social postings and surveyed closely what is happening in the mural/Street Art scene and are presenting a cross-section of at least one example of every category.

Sebastien Waknine. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

The somewhat arid agricultural community is spread out over many small roads and fields of wheat, rye, and corn. Old buildings are used for small art exhibitions and music venues – with many of the performing solo artists and ensembles playing a familiar mix of folk, jazz, afrocarribean, and electronic genres that merge local with international tastes.

It is a polished presentation meant to draw attention to the town, and we are thankful to photographer Lluis Olive Bulbena for capturing some of the images from this year’s festival. Following it is a video from last years’ GarGar.

Sebastien Waknine. Detail. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Sebastien Waknine. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

BYG. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Draw . Contra. Detail. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Draw . Contra. Detail. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Draw . Contra. Detail. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Asu Calligraphy. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Miquel Wert. Detail. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Miquel Wert. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Draw . Contra. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Ryan Smeeton. Detail. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Ryan Smeeton. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Paella. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Paella. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Zeso WS. Detail. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Zeso WS. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Jofre Works. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

TV Boy. GarGar Festival. Penelles, Spain. May 2017. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

GarGar 2016

Festival GarGar 2016 from lacreativa.com on Vimeo.

Website for GarGar

Facebook Page

238

138

45