Taupō’s Graffiato 2025 street art festival marks 15 years with new murals

A mural painting for Graffiato 2021 by Milarky, titled Aquanaut.

New Zealand’s first and “longest-running” street art festival is celebrating its 15th anniversary this weekend.

Fittingly, Graffiato, the annual Taupō Street Art Festival, will involve 15 artists adding new murals in the town’s laneways, walls and backstreets.

This year, murals will also be painted beyond the CBD, including at the Acacia Bay shops, Taupō Skate Park and a pedestrian underpass in Nukuhau.

Artist Sean Duffell, who was part of Graffiato a few times in the past, has been announced as the artistic director of this year’s festival.

“Graffiato 2025 is the year of the collaboration, with five huge collaborative walls involving artists who’ve never worked together before,” Duffell said.

“[It will be] really exciting to see styles merge and people working together to produce one huge, cohesive mural.”

Duffell has been a fulltime artist for eight years, predominantly painting large-scale walls commissioned for private and public spaces.

His previous work as part of Graffiato includes the walls on the side of Noel Leeming and opposite the entrance to Summit Fitness.

Graffiato was founded in 2011, initially as an initiative to reduce tagging, and has been delivered by Towncentre Taupō for the past 14 years.

There are now more than 85 murals around Taupō, with this year’s event taking the number into three figures.

“It’s amazing to see the local community and Taupō visitors take advantage of this incredible opportunity to watch and engage with the creation of transformative works of art,” Duffell said.

The participating artists this year are Ross Liew – the first Graffiato curator, who also operates under the name Trust Me – Dcypher, Kell Sunshine, Koryu, Margarita Vovna, Ed Bats, SwiftMantis, Sarah Kolver, Stephen Templer, Mica Still, Rebecca ter Borg, Nick Lowry, Indy King, Gemini (Gem Clough) and Pauly B, who co-founded the Boon Street Art Festival in Hamilton.

CUT-COLLECTIVE mural art at Graffiato 2022.

Eleven of the artists have painted at Graffiato before, including local emerging artist Indy King, who has volunteered at previous festivals and painted her first mural in 2023.

In the spirit of collaboration, she teams up this year with experienced artist Gemini, a fellow Taupō resident.

Towncentre Taupō general manager Julie McLeod, who also manages Graffiato, said Duffell turned this year’s Graffiato into one of the largest editions they’ve “ever had”.

“It’s an incredible privilege to have Sean Duffell on board ... Sean has amazing positive energy and has quickly become a huge asset for the festival,” she said.

A mural by Caitlin Moloney, titled Nectar, at Graffiato 2020.

Through partnering with other organisations, including the Acacia Bay Community Association and Taupō District Council, they were able to bring Graffiato to more parts of the district.

McLeod said the artists had free rein on their mural designs, the only requirement is that their work “reflects positivity and the beautiful sides of life, resulting in a town centre that holds dear to those values”.

Graffiato – Taupō Street Art Festival runs from October 25 to 27.

From Saturday morning, visitors can watch artists as they create their large-scale artwork.

Year-round, Taupō locals and visitors are invited to follow the Graffiato map at taupostreetart.com/map/ to admire and experience the works produced in past festivals.