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If you’ve ever walked through Calgary in the summer, you know the city is full of colour, and the murals play a big role in that. There is actually a city-wide project festival behind a lot of the artwork you have seen. This summer, YYC BUMP Festival returns, turning neighbourhoods across the city into an outdoor art gallery filled with new murals and large-scale pieces.
A major artwork upgrade
During the YYC Bump Festival, the whole city starts to feel a little different. Local and international artists come together to create murals all across Calgary.
A wall you’ve probably walked past a hundred times will suddenly look completely different. The murals are spread throughout different neighbourhoods, with each one looking different from the next. Some murals are colourful portraits, others are more abstract, and others tell stories connected to the communities around them.
The best part of the festival might be watching these talented artists paint the murals in real time, which makes it feel a whole lot more interactive than your typical art gallery setup.
And it doesn’t end there. Throughout the festival, you can find guided tours, alley parties, workshops, community events, and more.
The story behind the festival
According to organizers, what started in 2017 as the Beltine Urban Murals Project has grown into one of Calgary’s biggest public art festivals. The original idea was to take empty and overlooked walls in the city and turn them into something more interesting.
Over the years, as the project grew, the festival brought artists from across Canada and beyond, and it kept expanding into new parts of the city, with more walls and spaces transformed each year.
One of the most recent projects in the festival took place this May, 2026, and was called the Road Works project. Artists transformed everyday traffic barriers into small-scale art pieces. What would’ve normally been plain concrete in the middle of the city ends up covered in colour, patterns, and creative designs that make even construction zones feel a bit more spruced up.
But at the end of the day, the values behind the projects have always stayed the same – take ordinary spaces and turn them into something Calgarians can stop and engage with.
Now that you know a little more about the YYC BUMP Festival, challenge yourself to how many murals you find on your next drive to work. I bet you’ll probably spot a few more than you’d expect! It’s a nice reminder that our city is filled with colour and amazing creativity from artists all across the globe.
When: Saturday, Aug. 1 to Monday, Aug. 17, 2026
Time: Times vary
Where: Multiple neighbourhoods across Calgary
Cost: Free to attend
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