Leake Street, round the back of Waterloo Station, Sunday after London votes for a clown to be Mayor. Thousands enter Banksy’s tunnel for the Cans Festival.
Banksy has invited can artists from all over. Keen crowds necessitate heavy polite presence. The arcade beckons.
As far as the eye. All the way down. Not just Banksy’s sharp stencils but wrecked car installations, sculptures and pavement pieces.
The last time I felt like a citizen in this way was at one of Ken’s big riverside festivals in the GLC days. Not that the Cans Festival feels civic – more that this zone, 300 metres from Parliament, holds people from the streets, the estates and the houses quite comfortably. Oxford Street with nothing to buy. They’re sealing it off after Bank Holiday Monday.
04.05.2008