Street art flows through Rotterdam the way the Maas flows through the city. Around every corner, striking murals appear, some visible from far away, others tucked away where you least expect them. The highlight comes every September with the international street art festival ALL CAPS. But you can explore the city’s street art any time of year with the routes from Rewriters010.
I look for artists with a wow factor, who push the boundaries of colour and form.
Street art makes Rotterdam a more beautiful city,’ says Daniel Claessens, creative director of street art festival ALL CAPS. ‘Rotterdam is a street art city through and through, with artists who want to enrich it with murals. Art on the street changes how you experience your surroundings: it makes them feel better, safer, and more inspiring.’
A leading festival
Since 2018, ALL CAPS has grown into the leading street art festival in the Netherlands. Alongside international names, there are plenty of Rotterdam-based artists on show. ‘I look for artists with a wow factor, who push the boundaries of colour and form,’ says Claessens.
The name ALL CAPS is deeply rooted in the street art world and carries more than one meaning: a nod to the spray caps from graffiti culture, but also to typography, since many graffiti artists work exclusively in capitals.
Street art is an open-air museum with no entrance fee and no closing time.
Murals are everywhere in Rotterdam, seen as art that enriches the environment and gets people thinking. As far as ALL CAPS is concerned, art belongs on the street. Street art is an open-air museum with no entrance fee and no closing time. In their view, the streets belong to everyone who lives, works, or passes through.
Seeing the city differently
The festival regularly moves to a new part of the city, transforming it with colour and creativity into a living work of art. Visitors can watch artists at work both outside and inside, including sculptures and intervention art that makes you see the city in a whole new way.
ALL CAPS is about connection: culture as a bridge between people, regardless of their background. The festival is a meeting place for the creative sector, a platform for inspiration and innovation, where young talent gets extra attention.
Art on the street changes how you experience your surroundings: it makes them feel better, safer, and more inspiring.
Practice walls and designated spots
When the festival launched, Rotterdam still had a zero-tolerance policy on graffiti. Today, there are practice walls and designated spots where artists can work legally. Rotterdam’s first legal street art wall is the Open Art Wall: a 150-metre wall on the Korte Stadionweg, created in collaboration between the City of Rotterdam, Rotterdams Tij, and ALL CAPS. Here, artists, students, and enthusiasts can get creative freely and legally.
West-Kruiskade
The West-Kruiskade shows just how much a neighbourhood can be transformed by murals. This multicultural street, where 170 nationalities live side by side, is home to the Rotterdam Street Art Museum, created to make the space more beautiful and keep art accessible. The street is the museum. You feel the city’s authentic energy here, where every wall and every work tells its own story.
Transforming the city into a living work of art, with colour and creativity.
Street art routes
There are several routes for exploring Rotterdam’s murals. ALL CAPS releases a new route each year through the festival app, which previously won the Aardig Onderweg Award from RET. There are also six street art routes from Rewriters010. Download them and follow the trail through murals and hidden artworks across different neighbourhoods, each with its own story. The routes are updated regularly, so there’s always something new to discover.
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