The Street Art festival is back for its 2nd year!
I had a lot of fun covering the festival over two days last year. Street Art & Graffiti are two (technically separate) art forms that I enjoy a lot, especially when there’s a camera in my hand.
Let’s not waste any time and get into my journey to cover all of the Southend City Jam!
A little disclaimer: I didn’t get every single piece – mainly due to obstruction from fencing or cars so whilst I give credit for the work, there’ll be some omissions.
So we begin with the first Headliner & top 2 in sheer size: Spanish artist Jota Lopez
Next and first proper set of Supporting Artists resides in Short Street which I have never actually been to. Rightly so because it's basically a road for Royal Mail & local waste management. But now there's some art on the other side!
Artists involved: Mute / Ase / 2 Eazy / Stem / Tabe / Bias / Hick / Yats / Shie / Getloose / Chisk / Cash / Grot / Murals By Danny Bench
Next up is the first Featured Artist piece: Ansley Randall. (Apologies to Tris who I accidentally omitted.)
Next we head into the High Street for the first Cube Collab!
Featuring: Doppel / Abraham / Miguel H. Cuar / Roo
We then turn off and down into the catacombs under the High Street for The Deepening which features Headliners Ekto, Zabou & Jody along with Supporting Artists Yeko / Eyesaw / Paul Monsters / Drake / Sqwr / Reckless and Rabb / Ovie / Kron / King B / Pose 2 / Peal / Asoter / Meds / Knoes / Driper / Porfas / Jody / Soten / Eskae / Rask / Hoacs / Skare / Mr Zero / Dizoe / Strap / Izer / Hilt / Neyec / Ethos / Soul / Niser / Zems / Vents / Moet / Reaks / Sowet / Slider
Now off to Warrior Square with a ton of work. First, the 2nd Cube Collab featuring Humor / Snuz / Aspire / Gent
Then in the Warrior Sq. Gardens we have Supporting Artists: Kone / Kone Nizmo / Nizmo / Japh / Japh Dime / Dime / Doctor Inkwell / ShiroXsan / Hyper / Shisha Sigen / Urge / Micro / Micro Coar / Coar / Fark FK / Raq and Basik / Medyk / Gypsy / Metsu / Nexus / Vlad / Onion / Walls By Paul / Fussi / Mones / Nates / Mind49 / Karm / Sok / Cesto / Questz / Van Dali / B Side / Guzla / Aser / Posea / Grub / Slae / Mort
As you've probably gleaned, the biggest challenge was adjusting for light where some pieces were right in the sunlight but some others were deep in the shade…
Anyway, here's a great example of both! Just across the road – still in Warrior Sq. – featuring Supporting Artists Dusto / Sket185 / Dice / Four / Ders / Jiroe
Next we're going next to the Skate Park for Supporting Artists Slork / Sfer / Lord / Trion / Sums / Kans / Loans / Rews / Dahk / Disem305 / ZharJaz / Taio / Wispa / Gauner / Linger / Eklor / Jasik / Amuk / Azit / Dflect / K&B / Kirstnbritt / Mesa / Sawce / OuttaGram / Nerks / Tays
Back into the High Street for The Pop-Up Park! This one was annoying because there was leftover fencing stacked up in front of a few pieces so unfortunately I haven't included them. Supporting Artists include: Flipping Zombies / Shauna / Gazmac / The Last One / ELNO / Tom Blackford / Annie B / Amelie / Raq and Basik / Brave / Steve Dvine / Doodle D / Simbl / Ricky Also / Disem305 / Streets of Lily / Toska / Piro / Jim Vision / Mark Ward / Ginger Dan / Sepr / Atch
We now turn off to Elmer Approach for another Headliner by Uncle
And continuing down Elmer Approach for Supporting Artists Miser / Layla / Fark FK / Trik09 / Ed209 / John Bulley / Klonism / Demane Essex Rockerz
Next we hit the University Library for a wall annoyingly placed behind the bike shelter featuring Neil Fendell / Art OF Pixellicious / RTC / Abbey Parsons / Sharon Stone / Craig Hallums / Charlie Stafford / Sia / Evie
Next are a few more Cube Collabs but with a twist! Not only do we have work by Jaksta Art, Sprite & Joe Greenaway but we also have a few community walls done by the people during the initial weekend.
Next up is are Featured Artists Odisy & Dreps who populate the walls under the train bridge. Fun fact, there was a 10Foot Graf there last year! If you don't know 10Foot, you haven't been in London enough.
We head to Southend Central Station now for the other big ass Headliner: Smug
I'm going to cluster a few here. Hitting Tylers Avenue for Featured Artists Jeru Nomi, James Archer Art & Brezaux, then Headliners Dank & JXC and finally Supporting Artists located on the corner of Lucy Road & Herbert Grove: Toile / Aire / Refleks / Soner / Tuis / Shibe / SklOne / Demograffix / Laelo / Sime / Raek / Wintr
We then hit the Seafront for another Cube Collab featuring: Mr Cenz / Viki ART / Kato / SNUB23
Then we walk down to Adventure Island for Headliners Amed & Pieska. Big apologies to Spray Saint who I thought was a legacy artwork (There permanently.) and didn't realise until I was on the way home.
Back up to the bottom of the High Street to catch the last Cube Collab featuring: Ona Salvador / Captain Kris / STOCKE / marcamix
Couple more clusters to go now on the car parks around Alexandra Street. On the 1st car park we have Headliners ASEM & Ster with Featured Artists Pizzaboy, Cloakwork, Katie Scott, Tech Moon & Piece For Peace. (Sorry to MarkOne87, Sidok & Reves One for my omission.)
And to finish we have FIVE Headliners in duo Arsek & Erase, Jeks, Skyhigh, Bacon & Fat Heat; Featured Artist Andy Downes and topping it all off with Inuk / Birdie / Kesp / Arshe on Clarence St.
And that was Southend City Jam for the year! To reiterate, there are a litany of Legacy Artworks that are going to be there all year round and I didn’t take a picture of so if you appreciate Street Art, feel free to pull up!
Charlie Taylor
chillicharlie.taylor@gmail.com
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