Meeting of Styles Kosovo

Meeting of Styles is the international graffiti network that has been painting cities since 2002. Its Kosovo stop turns ten this year. From 28 to 30 August the walls along Tirana Street, down by the train station, get repainted over one long weekend. The roster runs past a hundred writers, from Kosovo and most of Europe, with names flying in from Japan, Colombia, Brazil and South Africa. The theme is Togetherness. Everything is free, 10:00 to 23:00 each day.

QArt runs the local edition. They are the crew behind many of the murals Prishtina already lives with, and this is their anniversary as much as the festival's. The format could not be simpler. Writers get a stretch of wall on Friday morning. By Sunday night the street reads differently.

Around the painting runs a full weekend of side programme. A graffiti battle sets twelve writers head to head at the Railway Station. An urban bazaar, kids activities and open sketching sessions keep the site busy through the afternoon. After dark the station turns stage: hip hop opens Friday, Saturday goes alternative, and bass and reggae close the weekend, over thirty acts deep and most of them local. Friday also opens with a ceremony; Sunday closes with the MOS Kosovo Awards.

The ten-year mark gets its own show. 10 Years of Prishtina Walls opens Saturday at the Youth Palace, a decade of painted city in one room. The best argument for going, though, is what the weekend leaves behind. The walls stay. The city reads them for years.