Banksy might have been using ‘Dismaland’ to troll us this whole time

Only this princess hangs out of her crashed carriage, apparently dead, as paparazzi look on.

News organisations were given access to Banksy’s dystopian theme park ‘Dismaland’ on Thursday, with most extolling the park’s grim virtues.

People wanting to buy tickets for Banksy’s new Dismaland show have been finding it impossible and the question being asked was: is the miserable frustration meant to be part of the experience?

As he wrote in the October issue of Juxtapoz, Banksy says the atmosphere of the park is that of a “neglected prison yard”.

Art provocateur Banksy has transformed a derelict English seafront lido called the Tropicana into his largest art project to date, a phantasmagoric installation called Dismaland – with the help of artists including Damien Hirst and Jenny Holzer.

“I went to see The Beatles and they were brilliant – it was the start of Beatlemania and everyone went wild”.

A warning on the site states that the festival “contains uneven floor surfaces, extensive use of strobe lighting, imagery unsuitable for small children, and swearing”, and also prohibits “spray paint, marker pens, knives, and legal representatives of the Walt Disney Corporation” in the park.

The development of the show was kept a strict secret before its official announcement, with local people told a cover story that the abandoned swimming area was being used in a film. Tickets cost £3 (around $4.70) and the general public will be able to visit from Saturday until September 27.

North Somerset Council leader Nigel Ashtonremained tight-lipped over when the authority had been made aware of Banksy’s plans.

The secretive Banksy, famed for his ironic murals in unexpected places, said the show was something different as his street art had become “just as reassuringly white, middle class and lacking in women as any other art movement”.

The display, his first in the South West for more than five years, will be housed at the old Tropicana building and will run for the next six weeks.