The Cheltenham Paint Festival is officially here. Grab your FREE trail maps and go explore!

Today is the first official day of Cheltenham Paint Festival!  Our annual festival attracts leading national and international street artists to our Regency town.  This year looks to the best yet with 130 artists expected to take part at over 25 different paint locations spread across a 6km (4 mile) trail. Read on for trail map details and to watch videos of interviews with the street artists. 

We've already shared the organiser's 8 unmissable highlights of the Cheltenham Paint Festival so check them out if you haven't already.  Below we've shared photos and stories from some of the artists we had the pleasure of meeting yesterday whilst they were creating their masterpieces ahead of the first day of the four day festival. 

The first artist we had the pleasure of meeting was Dan Kitchner, also known as Dank, creating this vivid street scene inspired from his visits to Tokyo and Hong Kong...

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Cheltenham Paint Festival starts tomorrow and we cannot wait! We had the absolute pleasure today of meeting many of the artists whilst they created their masterpieces including the incredibly talented (and genuinely lovely) @dankitchener. Dan or DANK as he is well known has worked his way around the world to become one of the leading street artists. He works solo using freehand spray paint, all by eye, never using grids, guides or projectors! 😮 We rocked up unannounced and had a long chat with him about his Tokyo and Hong Kong inspired colourful street scene. Check out stories if you want to watch the interview! If you want to check out his masterpiece for yourself head to Princess Elizabeth Way, opposite Pates Grammar School 💜💛 Have you spotted any of the new street art for #cheltenhampaintfestival2019 yet?

A post shared by Official VisitCheltenham (@visitcheltenham) on Sep 4, 2019 at 12:36pm PDT

Since we met with Dank in the morning he has continued to work on adding colour and reflections, it truly looks amazing.  You need to go and check it out for yourself on Princess Elizabeth Way opposite Pates School. Check out our exclusive interview with Dank here. 

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I mean, come onnnnnn!! This is silly good from @dankitchener! Total privilege to be able to witness this incredible artist up close for @cheltenhampaintfestival 👏👏👏 Looking forward to welcoming @inkiegraffiti tomorrow...well done Andy @dice_sixtyseven for getting this to happen 👍

A post shared by Shôn Douglas (@shondoug) on Sep 4, 2019 at 10:41am PDT

We then popped along to meet with Sarah, known as Faunagraphic who was mid way through creating this vivid masterpiece joint created with her partner, Rocket01. 

Check out our exclusive interview with Faunagraphic here. 

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Another of the @cheltenhampaintfestival artists we had the pleasure of meeting today was Sarah from @faunagraphic who is midway through creating this vivid masterpiece on St George’s Street next to the Dancework Studios with partner @rocket01 Check out our insta stories to see our interview with her and see what inspired the couple to create this stunning work 💜💛 #cheltenhampaintfestival #streetart #Cheltenham #TheFestivalTown #OurChelt #Gloucestershire #igersgloucestershire #ukstreetart #loveART #streetarteverywhere #urbanart #weloveglos #graffitiart

A post shared by Official VisitCheltenham (@visitcheltenham) on Sep 4, 2019 at 1:24pm PDT

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Well our first artwork for the festival seems to have kicked off a lively debate on fb! Wonderful that it's overwhelmingly positive though 😀 Many thanks to the irrepressible TRUST.iCON for this fantastic piece ❤ #cheltenham #cheltenhampaintfestival #streetart #cheltlitfest #lovebooks

A post shared by Cheltenham Paint Festival (@cheltenhampaintfestival) on Aug 31, 2019 at 12:20am PDT

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It’s the official first day of @cheltenhampaintfestival folks 🙌 130 artists are in town creating art in 25 #Cheltenham locations which you can visit on a FREE 4 mile self guided walk! Check out our profile link for full details then put your walking shoes on and go explore! 💜 We LOVE this scene by @trusticon isn’t it clever?#cheltenhampaintfestival #TheFestivalTown #OurChelt

A post shared by Official VisitCheltenham (@visitcheltenham) on Sep 4, 2019 at 11:14pm PDT

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To watch our full length video interviews with Dank and Faunagraphic and see more photos of the street art in progress check out out Instagram Stories.  To download the FREE Cheltenham Paint Festival trail maps as shown below click here. 

We would love to see any photos you take of the Cheltenham Paint Festival.  Please tag us in on social media using @VisitCheltenham #OurChelt.  We will share our favourites!