Banksy's dystopian theme park will now help house refugees in Calais

By Nidhi Prakash  |  September 29, 2015 | 2:51pm
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Graffiti artist Banksy’s bleak theme park has closed for good after its five-week run, and its disassembled parts will be taken to the refugee camp in Calais where more than five thousand asylum seekers are camped out in worsening conditions.

A note was posted on Dismaland’s website over the weekend with a mock up of the park’s decrepit castle in the midst of refugee tents. “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 note says.

Over its five week run, the park drew 150,000 visitors and $43 million in business for the British town of Weston-Super-Mare, where Dismaland was built, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.


Dismantling the park should take about three weeks, the Independent reports, so it’s possible Dismaland materials will end up in Calais by the end of the month.

“I can’t extend the run because of technical calculations. We have tall structures which have been built and certified for one weather period. It gets windy there and we’re not insured for one minute past the last day of September,” Banksy said in an interview with the Sunday Times when the park opened.

 
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