Forget about painting the town red, the "Bukruk Street Art Festival" will splash plenty of colour around at its opening party. The festival, which will feature Thai and European artists, kicks off with a live painting and music party at the open space on Rama VI Soi 9 on Saturday from 5pm.

Along with bands and DJs, there will be plenty of food, drinks and shopping booths, some extreme sport demonstrations, a hip-hop battle with Cheno from Free Soul Studio and a Parkour Generation demonstration on the buildings surrounding the space. Several artists will paint the walls of buildings bordering the open space. The paintings will be large scale as some of the walls to be painted are more than 10m high.

Guests will be able to watch the artists work, and as it gets dark, spotlights will shine on the walls, which should be a striking and memorable experience.

"Bukruk" is a large-scale street art collaboration between Thailand and Europe, with 16 European artists working jointly with 11 Thai artists who rank among the most talented and cutting-edge in the field.

The festival will continue with an indoor exhibition which will run at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre from Feb 23 to March 17. It will display the creations of all the artists, and will be available for sale to the public.

The items will range from traditional canvases to customised skateboards and T-shirts as well as small design objects, neon sculptures, silkscreen prints and art books.

A documentary following the artists through the entire process of their wall paintings will also be screened.

There is no entry fee to the "Bukruk Street Art Festival" opening party. For more information, call 084-914-5499 (English) and 080-990-6910 (Thai), or visit www.bukruk.com.

The ‘Bukruk Street Art Festival’ opening party will take place on Rama VI Soi 9 on Saturday from 5pm.