Global artists transform Aberdeen as Nuart festival returns

The grey walls of the Granite City are ablaze with colour once again with the return of Aberdeen's award-winning street art festival.

The Nuart Festival was launched in 2017 and has been held every year since then apart from during the Covid lockdown.

The event brings artists from around the world to create eye-catching designs on walls and the sides of buildings.

Nuart 2026 is running from Wednesday evening through to Sunday.

A total of 13 artists have been transforming walls this year.

It will be a mix of larger murals - the traditional show-stoppers - and smaller-scale works.

British artist and curator Martyn Reed organised the first Nuart Festival in the Norwegian city of Stavanger, where he is based, in 2001.

Six years later, in 2017 Nuart Aberdeen had its debut and was an instant success, bringing visitors into the city centre.

Organised walking tours took people around the variety of large eye-catching murals, or people could simply make their own way around in their own time.

Many of the artworks still remain to this day.

One of the sites is the historic art deco design Bon Accord baths - which opened in 1940 but closed in 2008 amid council budget cuts.

Artist Robert Montgomery's installation here will be the first time Nuart Aberdeen has created an indoor work, giving people a chance to see inside the building again.

The work inside the baths be unveiled on Wednesday night, as the festival officially gets under way.

Other buildings being used this year include the side of Chapel Street car park, and North East Scotland College at the Gallowgate.

A guide gives details of the artists, walking tours and maps showing locations of the new murals as well as ones from previous years which can still be admired.

A Nuart festival was planned to be held in 2020 - but the event had to be cancelled due to the Covid pandemic

Locations which would usually be full of crowds were instead deserted during lockdown.

Images taken by BBC Scotland News showed the contrast between the busy streets of previous years and the eerily empty city.

Students from Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Aberdeen have been helping highlight the festival's return this year.

Lisa Bruce, Keira O'Brien and Luke Chalmers - on a placement with business group Aberdeen Inspired, which is involved with Nuart - decide to recreate their own mirror images of existing works.

Keira, who is studying fashion management, said: "We hope people will really enjoy seeing our own interpretation of these much-loved murals. But we also hope it will inspire people to have a go at recreating their own versions.

"Above all else, we hope that we have met the brief of creating a bit of extra buzz and excitement as Nuart Aberdeen bursts back into life."

Martyn Reed, director and curator of Nuart, said: "There will be works no bigger than your hand and there'll be works as big as a house."

He thanked everyone involved "for allowing us once again to make a contribution to what we believe is a magical and inspiring city".

It looks as if the weather in Aberdeen will be dry during Nuart in the coming days.

The BBC forecast suggests a mixture of sunshine and clouds, and temperatures of about 11C.