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  • The Cans Festival Tunnel

  • Until Sep 30 2008
    • FREE
  • This event has finished
  • Leake Street, London, SE1 7NN

  • By Sara O’Reilly

    Posted: Mon May 12 2008


  • See photo gallery

    If you were too busy enjoying the rare phenomenon of sunshine on a bank holiday weekend to make it down to the Cans Festival, held in a tunnel beneath Waterloo station that was used as a taxi run in the days before Eurostar decamped, you missed the chance to see a sand-engulfed sitting room, a leafless tree bearing a bumper crop of surveillance cameras and other surreal installations, many of which also, appropriately enough, involved vehicles.

    Although the sculptures have been removed, myriad stencils large and small remain. Some are by the international artists invited by Banksy to take part in the event, which was rubberstamped by the Department of Transport, which has assumed responsibility for the tunnel. Others were put up (with the blessing of the organisers) by around 600 of nearly 30,000 people who turned up over the three days to see the work of Run Don’t Walk from Argentina, Bandit from the Netherlands, Faile from the US, Orticanoodles from Italy and others.

    There was a great atmosphere during the festival weekend, especially after dark (and you couldn’t put it all down the high concentration of aerosol solvent). If the spirit lasts and no one sees fit to get out a high-pressure hose (or their own cans) you should be able to check out the stencils for yourself over the next six months.

    Armchair street art enthusiasts can see pictures of more of the exhibits in our photo gallery.
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