After five weeks of rampant misery on the Weston-super-Mare seafront, Banksy’s Dismaland is now being dismantled and shipped off to Calais.
According to a statement from its enigmatic creator, the “Bemusement” park officially – and unexpectedly – shut its gates at 10pm on Sunday – and the materials that were used to build it are now being sent to help provide shelter for refugees.
The impromptu announcement was shown on the website alongside a superimposed picture of the park's Cinderella castle overlooking the Calais camps. It read: “Coming soon… Dismaland Calais. All the timber and fixtures from Dismaland are being sent to the ‘jungle’ refugee camp near Calais to build shelters. No online tickets will be available.”
The news, although obviously really nice and heartwarming and stuff, will no doubt disappoint A LOT of people. Tickets to the park were in high demand – with a reported six million people crashing the website in hope of squeezing into its solid sold-out run. However, with an estimated 5000 Syrian, Libyan and Eritrean refugees now homeless and camping around the French port town, this sudden closure really can only be a positive thing.
“(Dismaland) is ambitious, but it's also crap,” Banksy told The Sunday Times after the park's wildly successful opening weekend. “I think there's something very poetic and British about all that.”
The process to decommission and dismantle Dismaland is expected to take up to three weeks.
