Ireland's Waterford Walls Street Art Festival And Why You Should Be Going

We continue our coverage of the Irish street art festival Waterford Walls now in its third year.

This year saw the festival grow in scale with close to 40 international and national street artists transforming derelict buildings, spaces, and walls across Waterford City.

South African street artist Sonny at work on a mural in Waterford Ireland. 

South African artist Sonny in Waterford, Ireland
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We have already featured some of the new additions to the cities walls including the work of French Street Artist Ador's mural next to the New Street Gardens along with the vibrant work of Canadian street artist BirdO who painted across a series of empty buildings.

Another of the Waterford Walls artists we caught up with was South African artist Sonny, an artist we had not met before nor were we familiar with his work prior to our visit to Waterford. 

It’s refreshing to travel to a street art festival and be introduced to the work of artists we might not have previously encountered or seen their works and there were a number of such artists at this year's edition of the Waterford Walls festival.

South African street artist Sonny's Electric Fury mural in Waterford Ireland.

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Mural artist Sonny mixing up his colours for his Waterford mural.

South African street artist Sonny mixing paint for his Electric Fury mural in Waterford Ireland.

Electric Fury Mural
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According to Sonny, his latest mural is part of his global mural tour #totheboneproject with which he aims to raise awareness and funds for endangered animals. 

With a passion for wildlife, he is on a mission to paint large-scale street art murals in as many places as possible in efforts to raise awareness for his cause. From big cities such as New York, Johannesburg, and now Waterford to rural villages, Sonny is using his art to enrich communities and to honor these animals that are so important to him.

For his striking Waterford mural, the artist painted a large scale roaring tiger which he has named ‘Electric Fury". With torrential rains and strong winds, the Irish weather was not making it easy for Sonny and this delayed him starting work on the wall having to change his flight to ensure the wall was completed. 

As is often the case we, unfortunately, did not get to see the finished mural finished in person during our stay in Waterford for the festival while in town but on our return a year later we finally managed to see the finished mural in person.


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Sonny London Exhibition
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As part of his #totheboneproject an exhibition of all original artworks is set to be held in London – not details yet on the location or dates! If you can’t wait for the upcoming exhibition a selection of limited edition hand-finished prints from Sonny are currently available for online purchase, with more to be released as the project continues around the globe.

Sonny is planning to donate 10% of each artwork sale to IFAW’s projects such as their Russian tiger work and South Africa landscape work. In addition to this, one of his original artworks will be auctioned off with 100% going to IFAW’s projects such as their Russia tiger and South Africa landscape work.


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Sonny on Instagram — — @sonnysundancer
Waterford Walls on Instagram — @waterfordwalls
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Related Stories
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Irish Street Art Festival Waterford Walls 2017.
French Street Artist Ador's Waterford Walls Mural in Ireland.
Canadian Street Artist BirdO's Waterford Walls Mural in Ireland.

Waterford Walls International Street Art Festival runs annually, usually taking place in mid-august so head over to their website for more up to date info via the Waterford Walls website.


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