2016 was the first year that the Vancouver Mural Festival was held. This event that ran nine years but apparently will not be held this year, 2025. In the first year there were about 40 murals painted in 20 different locations. A concentration of them can still be seen near Main and Industrial.

below: Wall of murals on Industrial Street in Vancouver

below: “Van City Scape” by Ola Volo

below: A frog and a flying insect beside a pond or lake, a mural by Cody Lecoy,

below: This mural is a representation of Buddhist figures Yama and Mara, where the 3 heads rep Mara’s daughters, Craving, Aversion, and Desire. It was painted by Paige Bowman

below: Everything Matters; Nothing’s Important, by Katie Maasik

below: This dragon is a collaboration between Katie So and Ben Knight, “Knot Yourself”. The title comes from the fact that the mural spells out those words; the portion shown here is the O and T at the end of KNOT and the Y at the beginning of YOURSELF.

below: Nevercrew painted this large red mural – it’s a polar bear stuck inside a plastic bottle and it has the title, “Exhausting Machine”

There was also a wall of murals painted along Southern Street. Most of them are now at least partially obscured by changes in the building, or by items stored in front of the walls.

below: Mural by Julia Iredale,

below: Shannon Elliott’s mural of large birds with little naked men in their beaks.

below: Conductor with baton and lightning bolts?, the blare of a trumpet and a determined cello player. by Tim Mack

below: Only a very small portion of the mural was visible the day that I passed by, kids and little pink fingers or worms, by Peter Ricq,

below: Words – the whole mural originally said, “We’re looking for people who like to look for people”. by Bobo

Photos taken April 2025