Preparing for a casual day of yarn bombing.

Street Meet is a new festival coming to Saskatoon looking to prove that graffiti is much more than scribbles on a wall.

Taking place from July 5-7, the festival plans to take over downtown Saskatoon’s art scene with events at various venues like AKA Gallery, PAVED Arts and river landing.

Street Meet’s first and foremost goal is to celebrate to celebrate the variety and beauty of graffiti art.

Graffiti faces far more criticism than other art forms, often due to the vandalism associated with it, but organizer Keeley Haftner is not interested in changing the artistic formula of street art to make it more socially acceptable. Rather, she hopes to shine new light on the art form by showing off its artistic value to the public.

Looking to widen the appeal of the festival, Haftner has arranged a walking tour that shows off Saskatoon’s own artwork. Artist’s explanations of the pieces will also be included.

The tour takes place on Sunday, July 7 and should not be missed by anyone interested in getting the inside scoop on the artistic process. Admirers wishing to do the walk at their own pace are welcome to do so as well.

Haftner reached out to a plethora of artists for the festival. “It was nice because [the festival] was my baby and I could sort of toss emails into the wind with the hope that they might be so kind as to be interested,” she said.

The artists are versed in a wide variety of styles and hail from all over Canada. Montreal’s Shelley Miller, who designs murals out of dessert icing, and Corner Brook’s Robyn Love, a Newfoundlander who specializes in yarn bombing, are just two examples of homegrown talent to be featured at the festival.

Yarn bombing is when an artist layers knitted or crocheted yarn over publicly displayed objects, creating a colourful shell around the item akin to a candy coating. Given its intriguing style, Haftner has made plans for Regina artist Jen Keturakis to teach a class during the festival so wannabe yarn bombers can get stitching.

With roundtable discussions, and talks from keynote art history speaker Anna Waclawek, art junkies will find plenty to soak in as well. As one of the first art historians to document graffiti, Waclawek makes for an excellent source of insight on the artistic value of graffiti.

For more details on the schedule and artist info check out akagallery.org.