---
title: "Mural festival"
description: "An event that produces many murals in days or weeks, pairing local and visiting artists with donated walls and turning the painting into public programming."
glossary: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary"
source: "https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/mural-festival"
---

# Mural festival

> An event that produces many murals in days or weeks, pairing local and visiting artists with donated walls and turning the painting into public programming.

Glossary: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary  
Source: https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/mural-festival

Festivals such as Montréal's MURAL Festival and the Vancouver Mural Festival
have built internationally known collections one summer at a time, and the
model travels well: walls are cheaper than plinths, production is the
spectacle, and a district gains a visible identity fast.

The morning after is the part that separates lasting programs from one-off
events. A festival leaves behind dozens of artworks that now need an owner:
someone to map them, maintain them, credit the artists correctly, and tell
visitors where they are. Festivals that plan for the collection they're
creating compound in value every year; those that don't watch their walls
quietly decay.

Related terms: [Mural](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/mural), [Street art](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/street-art), [Cultural tourism](https://www.civiccollection.com/glossary/cultural-tourism)