Prince Albert II made a special appearance on the final day of the four-day street art festival, examining the temporary artworks created by international artists and receiving two cheques of €28,900 total for charitable causes.
The Prince toured the walls along the promenade, speaking with each artists about their work, before the event wrapped up with a charity auction.
The 2025 edition, running from 13th to 16th June under the theme ‘UPAINT the Ocean’, featured 12 guest artists from across Europe, including Jay Kaes from Spain and the UK, Italy’s Luca Ledda, and several French artists including Temponok, Zepha, and Julien Soone. Amongst them was also Mr. One Teas, widely known for his artwork in Monaco.
Edoardo Colman, whose parents Cinzia and Alberto Colman organise the festival, explained the event’s charitable mission: “We do the auction and then the net proceeds support the foundation. We finance their projects.”
From dinner entertainment to street art festival
The festival’s origins trace back to 2012, when Alberto Colman first conceived the idea during another family event. “My dad came up with the concept in 2012,” Eduardo Colman said. “My parents are in the events business, and they thought of it during one of their events.”
The inspiration struck during the Monaco Women of the Year award ceremony, organised annually by Cinzia Colman. “They had a crew of artists that came and painted a large canvas during the dinner, and they were being live broadcasted.” Edoardo recalled. “That’s when my dad felt like, that would be so sick to do an annual event where we bring street artists to paint for several days.”
The first UPAINT festival launched in 2017, initially featuring just a few walls. “Now we have a whole village going on, with a bar, a store, and a lounge” Edoardo noted.
UPAINT’s impact
Last year’s auction raised €28,900, with proceeds split equally between the Prince Albert II Foundation and the SPA (Association for Protection of Animals). Each organisation received €14,450, with the SPA funds supporting the construction of new facilities for animals under the honorary presidency of Princess Charlene.
The festival has grown significantly within the street art community, with Edoardo explaining: “Initially, we reached out to artists, but now our festival is quite well known and now we have a lot of requests from artists to participate.”
All artworks at UPAINT were temporary and were created using non-toxic, eco-friendly materials. Artists were free to explore themes related to climate change and biodiversity.
See more photos from the UPAINT festival in the gallery below…
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All photos credit: Kyriaki Topalidou, Monaco Life