Dismaland Calais: Banksy is turning park into refugee shelter

Banksy’s pop-up theme park Dismaland is to be sent to Calais to help provide shelter for refugees, it was announced today.

Around 5,000 migrants and refugees from Africa and the Middle East are staying at the camp nicknamed the Jungle on the outskirts of the northern French town of Calais.

It included a picture of the Calais camp superimposed with Dismaland’s fire-ravaged fairtytale Cinderella Castle, and added: “No online tickets will be available“.

“Coming soon… Dismaland Calais”, a message on the attraction’s website read.

The artist’s most recent installment, a parody of a seaside theme park called Dismaland and located on the sea front of Weston-super-Mare in southwestern England, includes a few ropes from Trinity Marine.

In the park’s final weekend, De La Soul and Pussy Riot were part of a Masked Ball evening event on Friday.

When it first opened on August 22, the Dismaland website crashed under the weight of people trying to buy tickets, and it sold out every day.

The bemusement park will officially close its gates on Sunday, and there are a few big unconfirmed rumors regarding who might be on hand for the exhibit’s last day.

Dismaland describes itself as offering “entry-level anarchism”, and satirises the tourism and theme-park industries.

The site also featured work by a few 50 global and British artists. Beyond the Mickey-taking title this show has been a deadly serious attempt to assemble the most cutting edge artists in the world right now, “It’s not a swipe at Disney” claims Banksy “I banned any imagery of Mickey Mouse from the site”.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Banksy said his artwork was inspired by Christmas theme parks “where they stick a few antlers on an Alsation dog” and spray fake snowflakes.

“It’s ambitious, but it’s also crap”, he said. “I think it’s going to do fantastic things for Weston and Somerset”, said Turner.

It is expected it will take around three weeks to dismantle Dismaland.

Mike Jackson, North Somerset Council’s chief executive, said discussions were taking place with the town council about using the location.