WOOL Covilhã Urban Art Festival 2026 - 13th Edition
Portugal's oldest urban art festival celebrates 15 years with a new edition between June 11 and 21. Mural paintings, artistic installations, concerts, cinema, workshops and community actions transform Covilhã's historic centre into an open-air museum.
The WOOL Covilhã Urban Art Festival, Portugal's oldest urban art festival, returns in 2026 to celebrate 15 years of activity with a 13th edition running from 11 to 21 June. For eleven days, Covilhã's historic centre becomes a living laboratory of contemporary creation, hosting Portuguese and international artists who paint large-format murals on the walls of the old factory town.
Under the artistic direction of Lara Seixo Rodrigues, the festival combines mural painting, artistic installations, concerts, cinema, workshops, guided visits and community actions in an intense programme. Across twelve previous editions, WOOL has produced 105 interventions in Covilhã and 272 in total between Portugal and abroad, with 70 Portuguese and 39 international artists taking part.
For 2026, the highlight is the community action "A Nossa Casa" (Our House), which invites residents to produce small crocheted, knitted or yarn squares that will be assembled into a giant blanket covering a building in the historic centre. This collective initiative reinforces the festival's participatory character and celebrates the textile tradition that defined the city's identity for centuries.
The programme also features a community lunch, conversations with the artists, open-air cinema screenings and various surprises taking place in the streets, alleys and abandoned buildings of the old urban fabric. The interventions remain on the façades after the festival ends, expanding Covilhã's already vast urban art route, which can be explored throughout the year.
More than a festival, WOOL is today an engine of urban regeneration that places Covilhã on the map of European public art. For visitors, it is a unique opportunity to witness the creation of monumental works live while discovering the Serra da Estrela mountains and the city's rich industrial heritage.
