I posted a fairly generic notice about this some time ago, but now that the festival is upon us its time to post again, this time with a little more detail. Sweet Streets is the new incarnation of the Melbourne Stencil Festival, reinvented by a new committee to traverse and cover all aspects of the street and urban art scene here in Victoria.

The guys and girls at the festival have been working hard to get everything running, and they have some pretty amazing things lined up for everyone, and just looking over it I’m really impressed by the variety, creativity and effort that has been put into it all!

The festival runs from the 8th to the 24th of October, and is really jam packed with what looks like an event for pretty much everyone, and it will be run over a variety of venues, so, heres the kinda really rough guide  …

Sweet Streets Festival Opening

October 8th, 6pm @ 1000 Pound Bend – 361 Ltl Lonsdale St,, Melbourne, Australia, 3065

The night to begin what is sure to be an amazing two weeks, and as the release says:

“It’s your first chance to see the works in the award show, as well as find out the winners of this years prizes. You can also grab a festival program on the night to find out what other events you can get involved with! (events are also posted on the Sweet Streets website)

The night starts at 6pm, with live performance by Great Earthquake and guest artist. Speeches and formal announcements will happen around 7pm. Then lets all kick back and party the night away with Dj Mike Zun!

This is a free event and perfect way to spend your friday night. So come on down and bring your friends to celebrate the opening of Melbourne’s street art event of the year!”

Theres an e-invite here on the Sweet Streets website, so download it and send it to all your mates.

Street Art Workshops & Master Classes

Undoubtedly the heart of the festival are the artist run education sessions that will be running over the two weeks that the festival will run for. A huge range of artists, designers and street art aficionados have pooled together with the Sweet Streets festival to play host to a wide range of workshops and master classes for anyone interested in finding out more about street art, or just to learn new techniques. There is everything from street art classes for secondary teachers, to stencils workshops, character design, yarnbombing and urban sculpture.

For a complete list of all the festival workshops you can be a part of, and to book your attendance, check out this link.

Festival Film Night

1000 Pound Bend – Thursday 14th October 7:30pm – Tickets $7 (+online booking fee)

Mark Holsworth, secretary of the Festival, well known for his impressive and often street-art supportive blogs, Melbourne Art & Culture Critic, has put together a cool night of street art short films “featuring four fresh short films about street art and by street artists – three of these films will be having their premiere screening.”

For more details on which films will be screening, check out this link – his selection looks pretty slick.

Sweet Streets at the BSG

Brunswick Street Gallery – October 13th @ 6pm – 322 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy – show runs til October 21st

The Brunswick Street Gallery in Fitzroy will also be playing host to an exhibition featuring artists from both sides of the Tasman during the festival, with a great range of talent such asl Cracked Ink (NZ) ,  Cinzah Seeyakem (NZ) , Liam Moore (NZ), PNTR (NZ),Rhys Burnie, Nate Gamble, Deb ,  Jo Waite, Megan Dell , Bados Earthling, Heesco  and KA’ …

“Through a small bookshop, squashed between two kebab shops, and up some narrow stairs, you will find the hidden gem that is the Sweet Streets at BSG exhibition.

Finding the place may be tricky, but it is worth the effort as Brunswick Street Gallery and the Sweet Streets Festival presents an amazing show of urban and street artists from Australia and New Zealand during the Sweet Streets Festival (8-21 october).

This cross-Tasman show will feature artists working in comic illustration, stencil, free-hand graffiti, screen-printing, mixed media, and painting.”

Pretty sure that this one is curated by Tessa Yee, who put together the amazing Urban Art 10a earlier this year. Check out more details on this show here.

Sweet Streets Fund Raising Auction

October 24, 2010 @ 6:00 pm –  1000 Pound Bend – 361 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne, Australia, 3000

Closing off the festival will be a great fundraising auction, where a bunch of the artwork from the awards ceremony as well as some other unique items will be auctioned off to help fund the future of the festival, as well as charity.

“Help raise money for the future of Sweet Streets as well as the Collingwood Housing Estate Arts Community, and Anglicare Victoria – our chosen charities.

Featuring signed prints donated by Obey, the Award Show murals by well-known local artists including Deb and Drewfunk, and a range of unique works created especially for the Charity Auction, by local and visiting artists, through the facilitation of the Collingwood Underground Artists hub – active throughout the three weeks of the festival.”

Check out the link to the event here.

So, thats the very brief  kinda rough guide to the festival – but there is so, so much more detail that I haven’t covered, so make sure you check out these links:

Sweet Streets website
Sweet Streets Facebook page
Sweet Streets on Twitter

Have fun, and see you at the festival – I’ll probably be doing other updates as the various events come round, so stay tuned …