On Wednesday we were delighted to thankfully make it to Weston-super-Mare in order to pay a visit to Dismaland a group show and installation curated by Banksy in the town’s abandoned beach front Lido. We visited Bristol the previous day (post coming soon) in order to travel to Weston-super-Mare to spend the night so as to be able to make a fresh start the following morning against the lengthy queues we had been forewarned about. We arrived at 9am and were delighted to be first in the queue, with a two hour wait to enter at 11am. When we arrived there was already quite the queue at the ticket desk opposite the lido with people attempting to secure tickets to see the event and within the hour the queue of people with tickets was increasingly growing in length with excitement in the air.

Following the obligatory security checks, we were ready to enter the park, at this stage one is met by the first of many condescending staff members who direct you to the fake security check where the fun begins. This section created by Californian artist Bill Barminski, consists of cardboard X-ray machines and tables full of cardboard objects supposedly taken from visitors, accompanied by rather aggressive looking and hostile security officers. Following this, one enters the park to be greeted by staff handing out the guides to the park, we say handing out but in reality this entailed them refusing to hand over said maps, snatching them away as you attempted to take them and resulting in our case with the map eventually being thrown on the floor for us to obtain. At this stage one had no illusions about the experience that one was about to undertake, yet still you couldn’t help but smile at the experience unfolding.

Then you were offered your first glimpse at the spoof theme park in all it’s shabby and neglected glory. There were no pretensions about this place, with its muddy, incomplete walkways and ruined surfaces Dismaland offers an impression of a crude and botched thrown-togetherness that is entirely at odds with the real money behind the project and technical expertise and planning that has brought the whole thing into being. As the name suggests this isn’t your conventional fantasy driven sweet Disney World experience but in fact a ‘Bemusement Park’ enthused with a sense of misery and disappointment, were things don’t work, the staff are rude and joy is noticeable in its absence.

On a whole the experience is deeply unsettling, yet bizarrely entertaining, you can’t help but walk around with a smile at the array of amusing and tongue-in-cheeks setups around the 2.5 acre site. On announcing the project Banksy described Dismaland as “a festival of art, amusements and entry-level anarchism” and one can’t argue with that comment. The park is fuelled with works and installations from more than fifty artists from seventeen countries, the three galleries are worth the modest £3 entrance fee alone, however it is the park’s immersive and unrelenting nature that make it so memorable and paradoxically fun. The staff remain admirably in character at all times and are resolutely depressed about their duties, the works are witty, tongue-in-cheek and sometimes outrageous, but above it all in its own perverse way Dismaland is very much fun and a world apart from your average art show.

The first of many stencils on the floor outside Weston-super-Mare train station directing visitors to the attraction.

The queue when we arrived at 9am.

The queues to get into Dismaland at 10am, an hour before the attraction opened.

‘Cinderella’s Castle’ was constructed by Block9 who construct set builds and installations for events.

A superb sculpture of Ariel from Disney’s The Little Mermaid, distorted and mirroring a reflection image in water. 

A broken and abandoned fountain set aside the lido’s pool.

The feature work in the ‘Cinderella’s Castle’ a sculpture by Banksy depicting an upturned Disney carriage revealing a dead Cinderella surrounded by the Paparazzi who aren’t helping but merely documenting the unfolding tragedy. The inspiration of this work is clear, referencing the death of Princess Diana and setting to reveal “how it feels to be a real princess.” In this section the scene is completed by the flashing lights of the journalists cameras accompanied by the sound of flashbulbs and the classic Disney tweeting tones of the cartoon birds surrounding Cinderella.

‘Mediocre’ by Axel Void.

‘Water Cannon Creek’ offering an armour plated riot control vehicle of the ilk deployed on the streets of Northern Ireland, during The Troubles, fully equipped with sniper posts, grenade launchers and additionally a children’s slide. 

The lido’s life guard who could be heard constantly blowing her whistle and chastising passers-by to “STOP RUNNING” and warning revelers not to pee in the pool.

Rubbish and debris dumped in the pools around Cinderella’s Castle.

Summing up the ethos of this show, work by David Shrigley.

An interesting modern take on the carnival face in the hole boards prevalent at seaside resorts and offering an interesting commentary on the modern ‘selfie’ obsessed culture we live in.

A second carnival face in the hole board offering a rather unconventional subject matter. This piece was certainly a success with a constant flow of people clambering to seize the opportunity to get their photo taken with this unorthodox work.

‘Fly Tip Theatre’ by Paul Insect and Bast, a puppet revue show constructed entirely from appropriated contents of Hackney Skips.

Pocket Money Loans by Darren Cullen offers a rather interesting and certainly humorous look at the way in which individuals are targeted by banks and loans companies in order to become in debt and then shackled to their existance. This look at the empty promises of consumerism focuses on a loan shop targeted at under 12’s. Of the work Darren states how he is “especially interested in the point where the terrible requirements of our system collide with the innocence of childhood. Children’s play, like every other aspect of human life, has been colonised by capitalism, adapted into a sort of childhood training camp for the hard-working consumers and soldiers of tomorrow.” Once inside the booth the only way to catch a glimpse of the company’s punitive interest rate is by bouncing on a trampoline. 

Children’s play area.

The Giant Pin Wheel constructed by Banksy to power the entire site, but could be seen just about starting up before creaking back into submission and lack of use.

An impossible crazy golf course themed around a oil caliphate and constructed from the hockey pitch at Cheltenham Ladies College.

One of many run down and seemingly broken and abandoned childrens rides no longer functioning at Dismaland.

All the impressive art pieces and installations aside, it really was the incredible members of staff that truely generated the Dismaland experience, unrelenting in their boredom and indifference.

The ‘Anarchists Tent’ comprising a multitude of protest signs, a fundamental and spontaneous medium of folk art, intrinsically linked to the dissatisfaction of individuals and groups against the states that run our lives.

Excellent work by Mana Neyestani in the ‘Anarchists Tent’. Mana is an Iranian cartoonist who now lives in France, having escaped Iran for Paris whilst on temporary release from prison in 2006 following arrest over one of his satirical cartoons.

Work by Mana Neyestani.

Work by Mana Neyestani.

Work by Pure Evil.

Standing stallion sculpture by Ben Long made from used scaffolding.

Superb and poignant sculpture looking at the link between oil conglomerates such as BP and the devastation they wreak on the environment.

“Un-Fuck The System”.

Work by Banksy, paying homage to, and mocking, the traditional seaside aquarium.

Work by American furniture tweaking artist Michael Beitz.

Series of paste-ups offering a number of witty and sarcastic comments on modern life by Wasted Rita.

Poster work by Wasted Rita.

The sites truck mounted cinema offering a rolling program of short films continuously throughout the day.

One of the sites attractions featuring an oil-drenched pelican as the feature piece and offering the chance to win a fish finger in a bag.

‘Big Rig Jig’ – Mike Ross, a superb sculpture featuring two juggernauts performing ballet.

Work by Banksy, the only stencil work in the park, offering a glimpse at a more classic styling of Banksy’s art origins.

An exceptionally tongue-in-cheek attraction from Banksy, offering the opportunity to pay £1 to control one of the three boats full of refugees or the gunboat set to herd and deter the desperate occupants of the other boats. Additionally the water was full of several floating bodies, a piece that has become all the more topical since its conception and the opening of Dismaland.

The fully functional merry-go-round, with a rather amusing and haunting addition of the butcher sat atop boxes of mince meat and set below a strung up horse from the merry-go-round, offering a rather sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek reference to the horse meat scandal of 2013.

Nettie Wakefield’s portrait platform, offering the chance to have your portrait drawn in pencil, but only of the back of your head.

Work by American furniture tweaking artist Michael Beitz.

‘Winning Is Strictly prohibited’ by David Shrigley.

David Shrigley’s booth at Dismaland, “Topple The Anvil & Win The Anvil”.

Installation by Banksy showcasing an elderly lady being mauled by excessively aggressive resident sea gulls, also one of the sites prominent photo opportunities.

At this stage you enter The Galleries, an area comprising three sections, consisting of a broad range of contemporary artworks to be viewed. This piece is Banksy’s ‘Dance With Death’. Which features the Grim Reaper performing a choreographed performance in a Dodgem car accompanied to the Bee Gee’s Stayin Alive.

Work by Damien Hirst.

Work by Josh Keyes.

Work by Josh Keyes.

Work by Brock Davis.

Work by Brock Davis.

Work by Brock Davis.

Work by Brock Davis.

Work by Jeff Gillette.

Work by Jeff Gillette.

Work by Lee Madgwick.

Work by Paco Pomet.

Work by Paco Pomet.

Work by Dietrich Wagner.

Work by Kate MacDowell.

Work by Kate MacDowell.

Work by Shadi Al Zaqzouq.

Work by Neta Harari Navon.

Work by Banksy.

Work by Banksy.

Work by Banksy.

Work by Banksy.

Work by Banksy.

Work by Banksy.

This piece by Jimmy Cauty took an entire room to itself and was one of the galleries highlights. The piece is entitled ‘The Aftermath Dislocation Principle’ and features an entire town frozen in the moments following a period of civil unrest. This piece took a team of four people some 9 months to make, the pictures don’t do this intricate and delicately morbid handmade work justice.

The figure in red is the only female in the work and depicts Kate Middleton being protected by a large police detachment.

This section represents the moment when the police state have lost the battle and has gone into exile.

A very much standard pose from the staff at Dismaland.

Whilst the images of Dismaland set amid the lovely blue skies showed earlier were more picturesque and pleasing on the eye, we feel it’s the images set amid a dull grey overcast sky that really offer the full Dismaland experience and effect.

Telling it like it is and the show comes to an end.

All in all an incredible show offering a diverse range of styles and art, set to the canon of subversive, mocking and downright humorous subject matters, that really make Dismaland a unique and fundamentally British experience. An absolute pleasure to attend and well worth the wait.