Did graffiti artists attending world-renowned event go astray in St. Louis?

The three-day festival was supposed to enliven the two-mile stretch of the St. Louis flood wall south of the Gateway Arch, along the Mississippi River. But some artists apparently ventured to other canvasses — painting on strictly off-limits places.

At least two businesses are crying foul, saying their buildings were spray-painted by graffiti artists. 

StilL 630 Distillery on South Fourth Street in downtown St. Louis found graffiti on the business last Saturday morning. Big bubbly letters, the artists’ graffiti signature, marred artwork of liquor bottles displayed on a printed billboard that the distillery had mounted on its front.

Its owner, David Weglarz, was furious. He called it a punch in the gut. Weglarz estimates it will cost him several thousand dollars to replace a billboard.

“It’s a significant cost for us that hurts us at a tough time in our business,” Weglarz said Friday. “Not only does it hurt our business, it hurts our soul because we are trying everything in our power to promote St. Louis.”

Weglarz said the vandals got all four sides of his building and a fifth area on a shed near a dumpster. He said he tried power-washing to remove the graffiti but that didn’t work. Operation Brightside came Wednesday to paint over the graffiti on some parts of the building, but the billboard with the liquor bottles was special artwork that will need to be redone.

The Nebula building on Cherokee Street was also hit by vandals when a giant mural on the south side of its building was defaced. The graffiti tagged with a name in bubble letters that looks like “Hotel” ruined a 100-by-40 foot mural entitled “Prime” that had been spared from vandals for a decade.

One of the organizers of Paint Louis, Bryan Walsh, told the Post-Dispatch on Friday that he had heard from two businesses reporting graffiti. But Walsh said that it’s not clear if the vandals were connected to his festival. Walsh also said the organization doesn’t have the money to help clean up.

“We have unfortunately very little resources on hand in terms of labor, time, money, etcetera,” he said in an interview.

In the future, Walsh said, the festival will make sure to have sponsorships to include funds for cleanup. “We will work towards having built into a sponsorship money/resources to include the ability to clean up afterward,” he said.

Paint Louis also distanced itself from the vandalism in a Facebook post on Thursday but acknowledged that some of their painters may have defaced some local businesses.

Event organizers said anyone who defaced buildings won’t be invited back. Paint Louis also stated that it warns artists that painting should only be done on the flood wall.

“Paint Louis alerts artists during registration, prior to the event, and during the event that painting is only allowed at the wall,” the Paint Louis Planning Committee said in that statement. “Painting illegally outside of the event is not allowed. Paint Louis planning committee members have communicated with business owners that have been affected by things which happened during the event.”

“Artists who have been identified, whether or not they participated in the event, will not be invited to Paint Louis in the future,” the group said.

The Paint Louis post on social media mentioned that they hoped to “create a call for volunteers to assist in those efforts.”

St. Louis police Sgt. Charles Wall said police took a report over the graffiti painted at StilL 630. Wall said Friday that he was aware of two other reported incidents: one in the 4100 block of Chippewa Avenue and another in the 100 block of Chouteau Avenue. He said no one has been arrested.

The Paint Louis statement on Facebook began with some background on the festival. It started in 1997 and is now a “world renowned event” with the Guinness Book of World Records crediting it with the longest graffiti wall in the world, the post said. 

“The festival is an annual event that celebrates the four elements of hip hop: Graffiti, MCing, DJing, and Breaking,” the post continued.

The event brought more than 400 artists from Germany, Australia, Mexico, Canada, and across the United States, the group said. Walsh said an estimated 30,000 people attended the festival, which had music and food and invited families with children to take part in kid events and “experience street mural artists.”

Weglarz, the distillery owner, said the organizers should do more. He said people signing up to paint the flood wall should pay an entry fee and some of that fee should go toward cleanup.

Weglarz said the vandals posted a video on social media showing them defacing StilL 630, then later posted more videos showing them painting at the sanctioned event for the flood wall. The same vandals proudly posting the videos to highlight their work were out-of-towners, he added.

Weglarz said he sent those videos to the event’s organizers on Saturday, during the event, so he thinks it is wrong if the organizers are claiming there might not be a connection.

“It’s absolutely related,” Weglarz said. “To pretend otherwise is dishonest.

Weglarz said his building is “tagged” by graffiti artists on the back or the sides from time to time. “And we just have to come and paint over it,” he said. “There’s a cost to that continually and that’s a pain, but it’s not the end of the world and generally can’t raise a stink too much about that.”

But now this is on the face of the business, “so blatantly upfront,” he added.

“This is what they see downtown?” Weglarz added. “It doesn’t make them eager to book a return trip.”