Upfest BookUpfest, established in 2008 has grown to become Europe's largest Urban Arts Festival. Over the past six years the festival has played host to over 600 different artists from across the globe who have travelled to South Bristol to be watched at work by tens of thousands of visitors. 2013 was a particularly busy and successful year at Upfest with the organisers, volunteers and local community welcoming 300 artists and over 25,000 visitors to the streets of Bedminster for it's sixth annual festival.

Following the lead of Michael Eavis (Founder of Glastonbury Festival) whom in 1987 instigated a fallow year every fifth year of his festival, the Upfest festival will not be taking place in 2014. Upfest founder and organiser, Stephen Hayles explains; "Over the past six years the festival we created has exceeded all expectations, we've had artists and visitors travelling from around the world to be part of the success. The City of Bristol and it's support of Urban Art has allowed the festival to grow to be internationally recognised and further cemented Bristol's position as the UK's No.1 destination for street art and graffiti. We have decided to give the organisers, volunteers and the local community a rest this year, to help us recoup and have time to plan and execute bigger plans in 2015. We are already looking forward to our return in conjunction with Bristol becoming European Green Capital. We would welcome any support from companies or individuals who would like to be involved."

The Upfest Gallery, North Street, Bedminster, will continue as Bristol's No.1 urban art gallery, offering one of the largest selections of Urban art in the UK alongside a full calendar of artist exhibitions, picture framing and artist materials. The Upfest production team and artists still have a busy summer ahead with plans to curate artwork at a number of other UK festivals and a few other surprises which we'll keep under our hat for now.

Once again we would like to thank everyone that has been involved in Upfest's success and the people of Bristol for their ongoing support.