Southend is transformed by street artists from across world

Residents and tourists flocked to the seafront and high street over the last three days to witness the work of more than 100 artists creating huge pieces of art as part of the City Jam Festival. 

Artist at work during City Jam weekend (Image: George Pizani)

Over the course of the weekend, visitors had the chance to see the artists transform blank walls into vivid and fascinating pieces of artist. 

One of the artists, known as “Layla”, believes the chance to see the artists slowly work on their art across three days helps make City Jam unique. 

“I know you get a lot of tourism here already, but something like this offers something different. A lot of of people love to see the process of how the street art is created.” she said.

Artist, Layla with her Hyena painting (Image: George Pizani)

Layla, who is from Newbury and works under the name Layla’s Murals, spent her weekend working on a large hyena piece. 

Her art was brought to life with vivid fluorescent colours and has deep meaning for the talented artist. 

She added: “I’m painting a hyena; I love them and think they’re amazing. I belong to an all-female street group who I met in London when I started painting and the female hyenas are the ones who dominate the males.

“There are not many species in the animal kingdom where the female’s kind of rule over the males. I just like that there’s more women who are starting to paint.

Familiar face, Scotty Brave, is behind many of the city's iconic works (Image: George Pizani)

One of the familiar faces at this year’s festival is Scotty Brave; a Westcliff resident behind some of Southend’s most beloved works of street art. 

For City Jam, Scotty is working on a huge portrait of another Essex icon, the Prodigy’s Keith Flint.

City Jam organisers, Karl Sims and Steve Hart (Image: George Pizani)

“I’m one of the few local artists who have got a decent spot this year. Most of the good spots go to international artists who are at the top of their game, so it’s really nice for me to have a decent spot.” said Scotty.

“The tradition of doing street art has always been a subculture in Southend, it’s just taken years of campaigning to convince people that the street art culture here works to bring more visitors”.

A new edition to this Southend street (Image: George Pizani)

City Jam is the brainchild of Southend artists Karl Sims and Steve Hart, who in recent years have worked tirelessly to bring the best of the best to the seaside city.

For Karl, part of the joy of the festival is its diversity. He said: “We’ve got guys from New York, Mexico, everywhere; it would be easier to tell you where we haven’t got artists from.”.

Steve added: “Southend is a unique place as it is, and you put that together with a festival like this and nothing compares to it.”