Watch: High-Vis Festival 2022: A celebration of urban arts and culture in Digbeth

The High-Vis Festival is a celebration of all things street culture with amazing displays of graffiti art to jaw dropping breakdancing, skateboarding, street food and live music. The festival took place at the Tea Works in Digbeth on Saturday (Septemer 24).

The atmosphere at the festival was nothing short of fantastic, with a warm community spirit between the 30 plus artists here and their fans. Aside from the street art, Red Bull also hosted the skateboarding competition Road Gap. There’s also a breakdancing competition run by Hold Your Ground. The festival was founded to support grassroots urban arts and culture here in Digbeth.

The festival was co-founded by Panda who told us how the festival is about celebrating the artists, dancers, and musicians who make Birmingham what it is.

“The whole thing about the High-Vis Festival - it’s about celebrating street culture and the artists and then the dancers and the musicians and all that sort of stuff that make Birmingham what it is. And it’s just gone fantastic today, man. I mean, so you’ve got street artists as well as graffiti, you’ve got the skateboard competition as well. At the moment we’ve got breakdancing like a B boy competition going on over there. Later on we’ve got some mad DJs playing jungle and all this sort of stuff later on, it’s just fantastic.”

Quinn Paddock, a street artist who goes by the name of Aseone, said that the festival helps to unite the different communities in Birmingham. He said that the festival promotes artists, DJs, and bar people, and that it helps to expand the creative scene in Birmingham.

“It’s like, with the community around Birmingham and stuff - we’ve got a hell of a lot of vibrant communities. We’ve got multicultural communities, you see, and what it is - stuff like this locks us all together. And I think in a positive way, it promotes artists, DJs, bar people and it brings events people, as well, together. And it helps us unite. Even though it’s like small beginnings in this place, it’s just, like derelict buildings and stuff, but what we aim to do is expand creatively, in a major way.”

Euan Stubbs, Sales and Marketing Director for the Big Fang Collective, said that the festival celebrates what street art is and that it is important to celebrate the art form in Birmingham.

“Yeah, I think that the guys do an amazing job. And I think for us, it was, you know, it is about celebrating this area. Digbeth is known, you know, you’ve seen the reaction with the Commonwealth Games coming into the city. Digbeth street art is known throughout the UK. So I think that these events just really celebrate what street art is, and graffiti. I think that that’s what’s really important about this.”

Panda told us that he believes the festival is a great opportunity to show what Birmingham is all about: “So Birmingham’s graffiti and street art  scene has always been pretty buoyant. Over the last couple of years, it’s just started getting bigger and bigger and stronger and all that sort of stuff. Birmingham you know, Brummies are renowned for being quite modest and all that sort of stuff so they don’t shout about themselves that much.

“We’ve done the Commonwealth Games, killed that - amazing. And everything else after that as well - loads of events that celebrate that and it just seems to be we’re on a roll. You know, nothing can stop us man. I want to get this place, city of culture and all that sort of stuff - it deserves it man. I love it.”

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