The City of Gold Urban Art Festival is under way in Johannesburg. It's a celebration of street art -- attracting creatives from around Africa and the rest of the world. CGTN's Julie Scheier took the tour and filed this report.

Inner-city Johannesburg, a space that's fast becoming an international destination for street art. Already in its sixth edition this Urban Art Festival takes over the CBD for seven days.

JO BUITENDACH, CO-FOUNDER PAST EXPERIENCES WALKING TOURS "It's all about re-awakening certain aspects of the city through graffiti and street art and also bringing that more into the mainstream and the public can interact with artists and the art. In Johannesburg graffiti is fairly new, only 30 years old, it's only come in after Apartheid. We have kind of had a slow start, compared to New York in the late 1960's but it's really booming here."

JULIE SCHEIER JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA "The aim of City of Gold is to assist the growth of the local art community by establishing Johannesburg as a destination for urban artists from around the world."

LUCKY MQEDLANA STREET ARTIST "It's very important, it feels like I am finally being recognised for all the efforts I have been putting in. I think it is a great initiative in terms of helping people understand the culture better and get to talk to locals, students and they learn a lot more as it grows."

FALKO ONE STREET ARTIST "Street art is this big umbrella movement of everything and anything that can be interpreted as creative. Anybody can be a street artist it's just that moment of interpretation and creative and I think what this does is now that there are street artists and graffiti artists people can see that along the line there is a connection and both can exist."

The initiative is hugely popular with locals.

"What I like about street art is that it reflects a feeling that I have as a South African, it's making something out of nothing. So it's just looking at life differently and that is what I really admire about graffiti."

But it's not just about the art. It's about community involvement and social awareness, too.

"The typical thing you think of about graffiti are people who are vandalising or people who are coming to destroy something but what I have seen on the tour is actually doing the opposite, people are actually beautifying. But stuff like this and stuff we saw on the tour actually graffiti can be used as tool for good."

Alongside film screenings and exhibitions, the festival's mission is to paint a positive picture -- quite literally -- of street art and graffiti, to inspire a new generation. JS, CGTN, JHB, SA.