The spot was located in the city Caldas da Rainha, 80km northwest of Lisbon. In the past a Graffiti-Jam has been hold there, mainly focussed on the national scene. As we came out with the plan for a portugese MOS, the city hall liked it, was cooperating and gave us a little support to make it happen. Eventhough the line-up was focussed on portugese writers, some british guys came over to paint.

You got to know that Graf has an own history in Portugal. Until 1975 this country has been under the reign of a dictator. Writing on walls then was the only possibility to express yourself and those who wrote political statements on walls, are now in the leading positions.

So understand this story, we were told by some locals from Lisbon: Once these guys were out at night painting a wall. Cops came by and the writers ran away. Eventhough they got busted later on. The cops brought them to the wall and said: “You put my name up there, and the name of my partner right there. Then you can leave.” The writers did it and got away. Funny how different countries and mentalities are.

You got to know that the climate concerning Graffiti in Zürich is not really positive, so the swiss MOS happened in close cooperation with the Flame-Jam. Its been a mad hustle for both to find good walls. But at least it worked out. Our partners found this spot in Winterthur, a city 20km east of Zürich.

The main wall had about 500squaremeters while the second wall has about 150. Both are located in an industrial area, next to a youth-center. About 30 artists from all over Europe came to participate. The painting-action started Friday in the afternoon and continued to Sunday evening. A concert had been held in the Rote Fabrik in Zürich at Saturday night featuring Switzerlands most up rapper EKR. Eventhough during the Meeting it was raining sometimes, the vibe was right and about 800 people came over to enjoy.

So it was a challenge to bring the MOS over. But, the way we are, we did it and it worked out pretty fresh. The spot for the Meeting was located in an industrial-area in Brookly near the wellknown Fun-Factory. Several wall were available.

The huge main-wall, some walls around plus two bigger walls at the base – a yard where a soundsystem was put. Originally we planned to do a second MOS in Philadelphia, but due to our tight budget we had to cancel it. Nevertheless, with almost nothing our partners YMI made the first MOS in USA possible. Many artists from Europe came over to work with US-artists. About 500 people camoe to enjoy, to chill and to connect.

The belgium Meeting happened at the same spot and in the same style as in 2002 – the wellknown Muntplein in this chilly relaxed atmosphere. The spot is pretty close to the city-center, so a lot of people just came by accidentily.

As the spot was in use during the originally scheduled date, the choice was either to do it in august and to have less wallspace, or to do it in september and to have the whole space. So we chose the last option. A stage with Rappers and Beatboxers was taking care of the right sounds. Artists from all over Europe over to US were participating. Antwerp is a liberal and open minded city with a vivid scene.

After having the MOS at a Skate-park in 2002, we switched the venue to the beach. This was only possible as the event meanwhile is established in the cultural calendar of the city.

A 320m long woodwall has been built at the beach and is now reported in the Guiness Book Of Records as the longest Graffiti-wall. Eventhough we know there are longer walls, Guiness does not. At Friday the event started in the harbour-area of Amsterdam with the creation of canvases and continued at saturday and sunday at the beach of Almere. A stage has been built for several acts to perform Reggae and Rap. Eventhough the focus was definitely on the Graf-wall. Around 2000 people came to enjoy and to chill.

England is left a little aside from the continental Graf-scene. So it was very interesting and inspiring to have the MOS over there. After the permission for the original spot in Manchester was withdrawn due to the lack of sponsors, we found a new option in Liverpool. This was only possible in close cooperation with this new event called ?The HUB? of the city of Liverpool. The spot was a parking-lot very central where three long wood walls had been built up. A huge stage with several music and breakdance-performances was taking care of the right sounds. Liverppol is a mad city with an awesome night-life. About 1.500 people came to check out the event.

Finland is a Nordic country situated in Northern Europe. It has borders with Sweden to the west, Russia to the east, and Norway to the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland. The capital city is Helsinki.

Finland has a population of 5,300,362 people, spread over an area of 338,145 square kilometres. Finland is the sixth largest country in Europe in terms of area, with a low population density of 16 people per square kilometre, making it the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. Finland has thriving services and manufacturing sectors and is a highly democratic welfare state with low levels of corruption, consistently ranking at or near the top in international comparisons of national performance.

Pori is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The centre of the city it located some 15 km from the coast of Gulf of Bothnia. Pori is part of the province of Western Finland and is the most important town in the Satakunta region.

The municipality has a population of 76,205. As well as in many other scandinavian countries, in Finland the climate is very restrictive against Graffiti, so no chance in Helsinki, but in Pori. The finish Meeting happened at the established culture-house of the city. Its surface has been sandblasted and a scafolding been built-up.

Over both days it never got really dark. A sound-system was playing, so some finish freestyle-rappers attended the event as well as some breakdancers. Finish people are mad drinkers, so you can imagine how the girlies are. About 800 people came to enjoy.

Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark situated on the Zealand and Amager Islands and is separated from Malmö, Sweden by the Øresund. With the completion of the transnational Oresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmö are connected by a car/rail link and are in the process of integrating their respective labour markets, resulting in the number of commuters from both sides growing annually.
The city of Copenhagen is for historic reasons divided into several municipalities.
From 1 January 2007 the population of the 33 municipalities including the municipality of Copenhagen is 1,825,814. The public transportation system of Copenhagen consists of commuter trains (called “S-trains”) buses, and a metro. The S-trains form the basis of the transportation network, stretching to most areas of metropolitan Copenhagen, with their main hub at Copenhagen Central Station (København H). Some regional trains supplement the S-train services with lines extending further such as to the Copenhagen Airport, Elsinore, and Malmö.

It hasnt been easy to realise the second danish Meeting. The mental climate concerning Graffiti has never been really good in Copenhagen. After we had problems with the first MOS at the HallOfFamwe at Dybbelsbro in 02, it was a great fortune to get the option to do the event in the Freetown of Christiania.

Christiania, also known as Freetown Christiania is a partially self-governing neighbourhood of about 850 residents, covering 34 hectares (85 acres) in the borough of Christianshavn and has established semi-legal status as an independent community.

Christiania was founded in 1971, when many people from different backgrounds began to take over an area of recently abandoned military barracks together as a protest against the Danish government. At the time many people in the larger Danish cities felt betrayed by the politicians, as they believed there was a lack of affordable housing. The inhabitants of the surrounding neighbourhood Christianshavn also wanted a green, open area for their children to use, away from the increasing traffic in Copenhagen. The spirit of Christiania quickly developed into one of communism, the hippie movement and the squatter movement, in sharp contrast to the site’s previous military use.

The neighbourhood is accessible through many entrances and cars are not allowed. Danish authorities have repeatedly removed the large stones blocking the main entrance claiming they need access to the area for fire trucks and ambulances in the event of a fire or medical emergency, yet the residents respond by placing them back each time as they feel suspicious that the authorities will instead use it for police operations. The people in Christiania have developed their own set of rules, completely independent of the Danish government. The rules forbid stealing, violence, guns, knives, bulletproof vests and hard drugs. Famous for its main drag, known as Pusher Street, where hash and Skunk weed were sold openly from permanent stands until 2004, it nevertheless does have rules forbidding hard drugs, such as cocaine, speed, ecstasy and heroin. The commerce is controversial, but since the rules require a consensus they cannot be removed unless everybody agrees. Since 1994, residents have paid taxes and fees for water, electricity, trash disposal etc. The future of the area remains in doubt, though, as Danish authorities continue to push for its removal. On Pusher Street, cameras are not allowed, and locals will wave their hands and shout “No photo!” if they see someone trying to take a picture.

When authorities in 2002 demanded that the hash trade be made less visible, the stands were covered in military camouflage nets. In 2004 the stands were finally demolished by the hash dealers a day before a large scale police operation. They knew about this operation, and decided to take the stands down themselves. The police made more than twenty arrests in the following weeks though, and a large part of the organisation behind Pusher Street was then eliminated. This did not stop the hash trade however, it merely caused the trade to relocate outside of the town and to change to being on a person-to-person basis.

On April 24, 2005, a 26-year-old Christianite was killed and three other christianites injured in a violent gang assassination on Pusher Street. The reason for this was a feud over the hashmarket of Copenhagen. In the subsequent trial it was established that the suspects responsible for the shooting belonged to the so-called Blågårdsplads-gang (named after the neighborhood they originated from) from the North-Western Copenhagen and that they all had pending charges of violence, shooting, robbing and so on.What led to the shooting was the fragmentation of the Copenhagen hash-market.

Due to the Anti-Graffiti-campaign of the city of Copenhagen it is not easy to find good available spots over there. At the end, we found this beautiful part of the city called ?Free Town Of Christiania?. This area houses the last legal walls in Copenhagen.

There were four major walls: a 100 meters long wooden fence, two 70 meters long concrete walls of the main concert-hall and another concrete wall next to a street. The event happened Saturday and ended with a concert of famous danish rap-groups and the most famous scandinavian rap-act Loop Troop from Sweden. If you ever heard of Christiania, you know that the vibe was simply unique and great. Amount of visitors during the day-event including the concert: around 3000

Paris is the capital city of France. It is situated on the River Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region. Paris has an estimated population of 2,153,600 within its administrative limits.The Paris urban area is an area of unbroken urban growth that extends well beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of 9.93 million. Its commuter belt area has apopulation of 12 million and is one of the most heavily populated areas in Europe.

Since the 1980s petty crime has increased in France, much of it blamed on juvenile delinquency. As a result the banlieues are perceived to have become rather unsafe places to live, and youths from the banlieues are perceived to be one important source of increased petty crimes and uncivic behaviour. As a result of this criminality, the National Front, a far right political party led by Jean-Marie Le Pen, rose to prominence during the early 1990s on a platform of tougher law enforcement and immigration control.

Violent clashes between hundreds of youths and the French Police in the Paris banlieues began in October 2005, continued for more than seventeen consecutive nights andcaused riots in several other french cities. The 2005 suburb riots were triggered by the electrocution deaths of two teenagers who were, allegedly, attempting to hide from police in an electricity substation.

Paris is the most popular tourist destination in the world, with over 30 million foreign visitors per year. The Paris Métro is the rapid transit system and a symbol of the city, notable for its homogeneous architecture, influenced by Art Nouveau. It has 16 lines, mostly underground, and a total length of 213 km. There are 298 stations.

It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow and carries 4.5 million passengers a day.

In Paris the MOS happened in close cooperation with the Kosmopolite-Festival. Over one week there were workshops, an exposition and the release of Cope´s book ?The Living Legend?. Beside of the long main-wall there was a parking-deck available for paintingSo many artists came to leave their signs of skills. If you ever been to Paris, you know about the women over there. No further comment about this. The week of activities closed with a fresh party near-by the venue. About 3.000 visitors attended the project over the week. www.Kosmopolite.com