Street Art is famous. Not ‘did you see me jumping around in the background of that live news piece’ famous either, Street Art is proper. Street Art IS the news piece. As I took my 6pm power-nap on Friday night, the Radio 4 news announced that Banksy has unveiled some new art in a disused railway next to Waterloo. Damn, street art on Radio 4? Charlotte Green saying ‘guerrilla street artist’ gives me the ‘orn (actually anything that Charlotte Green says give me the ‘orn)

So my friend and I shouldn’t have been surprised to turn the corner of Leake Street on Bank Holiday Sunday to see the hour and half long queue that sprawled infront of us.

Hell, it should have been obvious that when upon googling the ‘Cans Festival’ name and a sponsored link for the stencil based art exhibition sprung up as a highlighted box, that this Banksy-powered 3 day long street art event was going to be rammed for the duration, having has it’s very public arse, PR’d the hell off.

All the better for it though, the Cans Fesitval was a really special event, nicely hosted, well run, suitable grungey and run down with walls, cars, hoardings, and boards full of the best stencil art in the world. Everyone who cuts outs and sprays for a living was there, there was a blackboard with the newly arrived artists’ names scrawled on it. Hush and Eelus was on there when I walked past.

One complaint my friend had was that the £3 programme being sold in the queue had nothing about the artists who were painting that weekend. Only some cobbled together texts from some old anarchists and the same old pseudo-intelligent, apocalyptic one liners about freedom found in any Socialists fanzine. Aimed at

the normal street art exhibition goers, the programme should have been more informative to the crowd that turned up, which was a refreshingly broad spectrum:

Students filling their art foundation portfolio, Londonites filling their bank holiday weekend, parents dragged along by their kids, kids dragged along by their parents, not the typical ubertrendy free booze snagging laggers who normally frequent these street art shindigs. Another top notch achievement by the organisers of this event, properly bringing the attention of the masses to the glut of quality stencil art that is walked by each day on the streets of the UK, via the power of google sponsored links and Radio 4.

The taste tide might be turning on Banksy (on the bus down to Waterloo, there was new stencil on the side of a disused pub in Dalston that has a Rat painting a sold sign with the tag ‘Wanksy’ underneath it). but all kudos must be given for the ‘look at me / don’t look at me / why aren’t you looking at me?’ street artist for putting his full weight behind this event and giving some overdue exposure to some brilliant artists. Banksy pieces were pretty special too, even with his trademark ‘twat-you-over-the-head’ subtly of sentiment, his pieces’ stood out.

But the best thing about this show was coming across brilliant pieces from Artists who’s work is normally only seen on the streets of Argentina, Spain, Italy and from all over the world. And putting to use this old train tunnel to showcase such top talent.