Colors Festival Tours

A derelict hotel transformed into a street art trail

The Colors Festival arrived in Tours in December 2024, taking over the former Hôtel Moderne at 1 rue Victor Laloux, just steps from the city hall. The building, which had been shuttered since the health crisis and purchased by a property developer, was handed over to the collective while awaiting administrative permits for renovation. Across 300 m², each room of the old hotel was entrusted to a different artist, creating a dialogue between the building's heritage architecture and contemporary urban art. The indoor tour took about thirty minutes to complete.

Over thirty artists, including a third from Tours

The exhibition brought together more than thirty artists. The collective noted that a third of them were from the Tours region, while the others were part of the international street art scene. New artists regularly worked on the walls throughout the exhibition's run, meaning the artworks were constantly evolving; tickets included unlimited access, allowing visitors to return and follow these transformations.

Local success and the closure of the venue

The public response was immediate: local media reported over 10,000 visitors in three months by the summer of 2025, and the exhibition was extended until the end of August 2025 before the scheduled start of construction. The site reopened one last time for the All Saints' holidays, from October 18 to November 3, 2025, which the collective presented as the final opportunity to discover the Hôtel Colors. The building then began its conversion: the "Hôtel Laloux" real estate project includes eight apartments ranging from studios to two-bedroom duplexes, with completion expected in the fourth quarter of 2027. The site is no longer open to visitors.

The end of the Colors Festival

The Colors Festivals collective ceased operations in 2026. Their official page summarized their journey—five years, twelve exhibitions, and 180,000 visitors—and announced that the festival was bowing out. The final exhibition, Colors Light Paris, was held from April 16 to June 28, 2026, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, featuring thirty-five artists; the collective explicitly presented it as the final edition of the Colors Festival. No edition took place in Tours in 2026, and none are planned for the future.

Murs de Loire, a separate project

Street art in Tours did not end with the Hôtel Colors. Following the media buzz surrounding the exhibition, the local association Le Mur launched the Les Murs de Loire festival in 2025, with its first edition held from July 7 to 13, 2025. About ten artists painted facades and large walls in the center of Tours and in Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, creating a permanent open-air trail. This festival was organized by a different group and is not a continuation of the Colors Festival.