ACT street arts brighten CBD laneway at Civic graffiti party

About 20 artists and dozens of Canberrans will flood Tocumwal Lane off Bunda Street this weekend to eat, drink, dance and practise their painting skills.

Graffik Paint owner and event organiser Geoff Filmer said participating artists would range from high-profile painters such as Byrd to enthusiastic teenagers who were just starting out.

"Jane Easthope from the Canberra CBD executive basically asked what can we do with this lane to make it more engaging and appealing, rather than a back-of-house, ugly part of Civic," he said.

"So I said, let's fill it with fun superheroes and street art."

Mr Filmer said the event would feature food, drinks and music from 11am and a temporary painting wall would enable Canberrans to let their artistic juices flow in a controlled environment.

"[Civic] is such a hotbed of Canberra culture at the moment," he said.

"Canberrans have got to the point where they're proud of their city. It's a beautiful place to live, it allows you to work and enjoy art and culture and part of that comes from street art.

"We've got so many street artists here in Canberra that get to a point and they just leave because they felt they couldn't further their careers, they couldn't take it to the next level... I want to build a situation where people stay."

Canberra artist Byrd, who will be finishing off an enormous Hulk on Sunday, has worked on street art since the early 1990s in cities all around the world.

He said the festival was the first of its kind in the capital and would open up the city.

"Street art can be brief, poignant and ephemeral," he said.

"It takes the load off people making it and the people receiving it and the benefit for the city is it makes art incidental to your everyday life.

"You won't have to go out of your way to get to a gallery, it's just sprung on you and you can take it or leave it."