Dressing up Papeete’s city walls
From May 10 – 11, Tahiti hosts the International Graffiti and street art festival. This festival is the first of its kind in French Polynesia. This first graffiti event is called « Ono’u» meaning “encounter of colors” in the Maori language. As a unique opportunity for many people to discover graffiti art, (notoriously known and associated with people living on the wrong side of the tracks), the festival is a chance for the street artists to express themselves in complete legality.
The Toa’ata square will host the festival. Famously known as a popular venue for events and entertainment, this famous Tahitian square will become a venue for an interesting artistic exchange. The public will discover all facets of this urban contemporary art. This festival is a perfect way to promote Tahiti as a source of inspiration. In addition, it will reveal all our talented Polynesian graffiti artists.
The festival is an international event hosting around 40 foreign street artists: INTI and KEMS from United States, BESOK from Deutschland, HOPARE from France or SOTEN from Denmark, to mention just a few.
The events include: on-site graffiti demonstrations, creation of a giant fresco and body painting… The public could also be introduced to the graffiti by participating under the guidance of professional artists in the giant fresco event.
The festival is structured around a large graffiti contest. The graffiti contest’s winner will receive a $10 000 cash prize. All the graffiti artists will be judged by a jury of artists: the French actor Christophe LAMBERT, the auctioneer Arnaud OLIVEUX, the American journalist Austin McMANUS, the French artist ALEX and Viri TAIMANA (Director of the Centre for Arts and Crafts of French Polynesia). We wish everyone the best of luck for the contest.
The first festivities have already kicked off since the beginning of the year; a lot of graffiti has been produced all around the world on the theme of “Tahitian culture”. Check it out. Since April 07, the Tahitian artists have started promoting the event by performing some works of art in the streets of Papeete. 
This nice introduction bodes well for the Tahiti graffiti festival.
Tahiti shall thus become the capital of street art for two days. All eyes will be on our islands! Visit the designated website and discover all the breadth of the event and the program of events: http://tahitifestivalgraffiti.com.