Lick of Paint 2025 is nearly here

The air is buzzing, the spray cans are prepped, and in less than two weeks, Sheffield is about to get a serious splash of colour. Lick of Paint, the city’s first-ever weekend-long street art festival, is nearly here, and I’m beyond excited to be part of it.

Artists from Sheffield, the wider Yorkshire region and beyond will be descending on the city centre to create incredible new public artworks. Lick of Paint have begun revealing the talent involved via their Instagram page. These include Roo, Kid Acne, WOM Collective, Romaround, Tech Moon, Elle Paints and 45rpm. Expect many more names to be announced before the festival begins.

More than just murals

The weekend will provide a great opportunity to see street artists at work. However, there’s much more to Lick of Paint than just new artworks. Community engagement is at the core of what this festival is about. There will be plenty of activities for everyone to get involved with.

Taking place over the first weekend of September, there will be free workshops, exhibitions, film screenings and graffiti battles. There’s also going to be several walking and cycling tours of the festival sites. Street Art Sheffield has been invited to run two street art tours during the weekend.

Lick of Paint haven’t yet released details about the tours, but these should be revealed soon. What I can tell you is that they will cover most of the festival locations, so you will hopefully get to see the artists in action. There will also be some existing artworks along the route. The tours will be free, but places limited.

Exciting times

Personally, I’m really excited for the festival; and I’m very grateful that organisers, Peachzz and Alastair Flindall, invited me to be involved. I’ve been running Street Art Sheffield for over 10 years now. I’ve known for a long time that Sheffield has a great street art scene. This festival should hopefully raise awareness of that, both locally and further afield.

Sheffield seems to be properly waking up to what street art can do for the city. Beyond Lick of Paint, there have been many new murals created across the city centre this year: including new works by Florence Blanchard, INSA, Rob Lee and Phlegm. There’s also a new Pete McKee mural about to be created. Sheffield’s streets have never looked so colourful.

Lick of Paint 2025 is Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th September. Follow Lick of Paint on Instagram for artist announcements and other details of what is going on.