The good thing about ageing is that you get to see how the city changes. Kastryčnickaja Street in Minsk has long been associated with student residences and its yeast factory. Well, the yeast smell is still there, but the ambiance is totally different.

The 100-year old industrial buildings and the street itself are now being reanimated with urban art (graffiti and street installations) by Belarusian and Brasilian street artists within Vulica Brasil festivals, so today Kastryčnickaja looks like one big open-air gallery.

Kastryčnickaja Street, often compared to Berlin and New York, combines very different and often incompatible things: a bunch of bars and cafes, galleries, factories, yoga and photo studios, art clusters… You can even spot an old Ikarus bus used as a Georgian street food café. And the day you’re certain you know every bit of it, a tramway stop pops up to pay tribute to tram line #2 which was closed in 2015.

As I live really close to Kastryčnickaja, I pass by every other week, and there is always something going on: exhibitions, flea and second-hand markets, concerts, open-air performances, lectures and workshops, and, as it happens, movie shootings.

No need to check the city events calendar in advance, let Kastryčnickaja surprise you!