Brexit festival branded 'pro-Remain flop' after staff 'refused to take part if UK's EU exit was mentioned'
1 September 2022, 11:14 | Updated: 1 September 2022, 11:50
An arts festival intended to celebrate Britain leaving the European Union has been branded a "pro-Remain flop" after artists allegedly refused to take part if Brexit was mentioned.
The festival's top team reportedly insisted it was part of their contracts that Brexit not be mentioned, describing it as a "red line", folk musician Donald Shaw, who directed an Unboxed event, told The House.
"When the festival was announced we said that if literally one MP stood up and said, ‘This is the festival of Brexit’, we were all going to pull out," Mr Shaw said.
The magazine also said “everyone” they spoke to at a festival event in Glasgow was "appalled at the very idea they were attending something once known as 'The Festival of Brexit'."
The £120million taxpayer-funded festival was announced by Theresa May in 2018 as a "year-long festival of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" to celebrate Brexit.
It was later pared back to an eight-month "celebration of creativity" involving 10 events in the UK, titled Unboxed.
The House also reported events were chosen with a pro-European outlook.
"We were looking to commission European musicians, it was a full European project. We went the other way," Mr Shaw said.
"Even to the point where some Tory MPs were apparently unhappy with us. They were like, wait a minute, where’s the bunting? That meant we’d succeeded."
The festival had been billed to see 66million people attend events across the UK but only 238,000 have so far taken part.
Naomi Smith, Chief Executive of internationalist campaign group Best for Britain said: "With a bill of around £500 per attendee, the Festival of Brexit is the perfect metaphor for how Brexit itself has turned out, hugely expensive and deeply unpopular with no-one really getting what they wanted.
"The new Prime Minister must stop squandering cash on these vanity projects and put it where it’s needed, struggling families, businesses and public services."
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