An arts festival to champion the benefits of Brexit has become a £120million flop, say critics, with some refusing to even take part if the UK’s exit from the EU is mentioned.
The taxpayer-funded celebrations were announced in 2018 by then PM Theresa May, who promised a ‘year-long festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’.
But they were transformed into Unboxed, an eight-month ‘celebration of creativity’ with ten events across the country.
Arts festival Unboxed, to champion the benefits of Brexit, has become a £120million flop, say critics, with some refusing to even take part if the UK’s exit from the EU is mentioned
Sources at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport – behind the festival which started in May – say some staff there feel it is ‘almost devoid of place’.
One remarked: ‘It was really contrary to the original vision.’
According to an article in MPs’ and peers’ publication The House, the festival’s chief creative officer Martin Green had asked officials: ‘Can I ascertain it’s not a Brexit festival?… You don’t want some kind of jingoistic jamboree?’
Pictured: Paisley Abbey illuminated during a photocall for an installation entitled ‘About Us’, created by 59 Productions, as part of the UNBOXED
And folk musician Donald Shaw, who directed an Unboxed event, told the magazine the festival’s entire top team insisted it would be part of their contracts that Brexit not be mentioned.
‘It was a red line in our contracts with Unboxed,’ he said, adding: ‘We were looking to commission European musicians, it was a full European project.
We went the other way. Even to the point where some Tory MPs were apparently unhappy with us.’