A cool and legal way to get your graffiti artwork done!

Through the wonderful networking of Facebook, I came across this event on the Bancroft Street Market page. It was the Abstract Concrete Graffiti Throwdown. Sounds pretty cool, right? And it was. It took place at the Bancroft Street Market parking lot this past Saturday.

I pulled up to the parking lot and found a DJ spinning some house music and dance beats. Good music? Check! Many of the graffiti artists were wearing their own headphones, probably jamming to their own music, but having a DJ on turntables definitely helped to set the mood.

This was the winning team that took home $300 in cash

I looked around. There were concrete barriers, lots of cans of spraypaint, many artists already painting away, spectators, and probably a little over half a dozen photographers. Each photographer was shifting from barrier to barrier trying to capture the artwork that was about to be applied to these drab pieces of concrete. Awesome, I wasn't going to be the only person in the parking lot firing off tons of pictures with their camera. This almost got me into trouble while I was at the Iowa State Fair, but more on that in another post. And as always, click on any picture to get the bigger version.

How this graffiti throwdown worked: There were eight teams of two and each got a concrete barrier to use as their canvas. There was a timer counting down and each team had to design and spray paint any type of scene that they wished. As the poster says, each team was judged on originality, style, and skill. What was cool was that this event promoted planning and teamwork between the members of the team. As I walked around, I noticed that many teams had blueprints for one if not multiple possible plans for their graffiti. Once they had the design in their heads or on paper, each member was going back and forth working on both sides of the concrete. It was a really cool event to see unfold before everyone's eyes.



Below are pictures of the final barriers once the timer was stopped. Next came the judging. Great work artists!

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

  

  

 

 

 

  

 

  

And the winners were announced

 And a few misc pictures