Surge of interest crashes ticket website for Banksy’s ‘Dismaland’

The internet is musing about whether street artist Banksy just trolled everyone now trying to buy a ticket to his surprise opening of a new “bemusement park” called Dismaland.

But don’t let that first impression fool you, because this “anti-theme park” isn’t exactly family friendly!

In one fairground game, visitors can steer miniature boats full of asylum seekers around a pond.

The elusive artist has banned spray paint, marker pens, knives and “legal representatives of the Walt Disney Corporation” from the 2.5-acre Tropicana site.

Banksy maintains his anonymity throughout it all, commenting only that “I guess it’s a theme park whose big theme is – theme parks should have bigger themes”.

He says he was motivated to construct the show on the site, which has been abandoned since the turn of the century, after peering through a gap in the fence in January.

A wavy, disfigured analogue of The Little Mermaid’s Ariel floats in front of a decrepit castle that evokes The Magic Kingdom, while Banksy’s horrific crash of Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage invites exhibit attendees to participate, paparazzi-style, by taking their own voyeuristic pictures.

And the lucky few who made it will have been the envy of hundreds more who turned up during the day in the hope of seeing the show. At an auction in 2013, for example, a mural called Slave Labour, which took a swipe at the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, reportedly sold for more than £750,000. As with all his other pieces, the social commentary is clear – there are no fairytales in life, and reality is much harsher than we expect. See more images from inside Dismaland here via The Guardian.

Thousands struggled to get online tickets to Dismaland, a dark theme park, which is open for five weeks at the seaside resort.

However Mike Jackson, the leader of North Somerset Council, was confident people would still flock to the show.

Only four people in the council were aware of the secret, he added.

The chances of latecomers grabbing tickets are looking slim, and with the park only open for one month between August and September this year, it’s unlikely that further tickets will be released.