Positive final result of the Street Art Festival 2023 with around 1 million CHF turnover for local businesses

It was controversial, heated some people's minds and impressed around 27,000 people during its implementation. The first street art festival in Frauenfeld not only improved the cityscape, but also brought local businesses around 1 million CHF in revenue. The street art tours, which were carried out by Thurgau Tourism, were also completely booked out. After three months of art all over the city, from today on, all installations will be removed step by step. The murals on the facades, stairs and fountains are preserved in the cityscape.

‍

Frauenfeld, October 2, 2023 — With a laughing and a crying eye, the city of Frauenfeld says goodbye to the installations that were set up as part of this year's street art festival. The works of art attracted many people to the Thurgau capital and also helped local businesses, which suffered from lost sales during the Covid measures.

The organizers have taken the initial criticism of the partial financing of the festival from the COVID fund of the city of Frauenfeld to heart. “The city council placed their trust in us a year ago and made the most important part of the financing possible with this fund. Without this commitment, the street art festival would not have come about,” summarize organizers Monika and Marco Niedermann. “We are grateful that we were given the opportunity and were able to prove that this investment pays off several times over.”

With CHF 280,000 from the COVID fund from the city of Frauenfeld and CHF 150,000 from the lottery fund, the foundation stone for the first street art festival in Frauenfeld was laid over a year ago. Of the money, around CHF 200,000 went directly to local businesses and a good CHF 800,000 in addition from visitors to the cash registers of the catering, hotel and local businesses.

International attention

Some artists and experts on the street art scene rated the Frauenfeld festival as the largest in Europe. However, there is no clear answer to this question. According to the number of murals that were created at the same time, that should actually be the case. Even though it is based on the variety of styles and disciplines on display, the festival in Frauenfeld is unique. In addition to tourists from Germany, Austria, Holland and Italy, the founders of “Street Art Cities”, the largest online street art platform in Europe, traveled to Frauenfeld to witness the opening ceremony. They rank Streetart Festival Frauenfeld among the top 10 in Europe and have included Frauenfeld in their “Street Art Cities” app.

A big thanks from the initiators

Monika and Marco Niedermann are overwhelmed by the many positive feedback from visitors, the city council and the population, who had a lively exchange with the artists before and during the opening ceremony and express their heartfelt thanks. “Without the warm encounters, enthusiasm and kind words from the population, we would be poorer by a very nice experience.”. The national and international artists were also impressed and had never felt as comfortable at a festival as in Frauenfeld. Not only because of the good organization, but also because they got into conversation with many curious and open-minded visitors and were able to exchange ideas.

Is it going on?

Monika and Marco Niedermann cannot yet say whether there will be another street art festival in Frauenfeld. Talks about a possible continuation are ongoing with the city and the canton. It is certain that the many murals on Frauenfeld's facades will be documented in the “Street Art Cities” smartphone app and will continue to bring visitors and tourists to Frauenfeld.