Dark Theme Park Dismantled for Syrian Migrants

Dismaland fixtures are slated for French camp
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 28, 2015 7:00 PM CDT
Dark Theme Park Dismantled for Syrian Migrants
In this Aug. 20, 2015 file photo, a view of "Dismaland,"in Western-super-Mare, Somerset, England.   (Yui Mok/PA via AP, File)

The remains of a macabre theme park in England are about to find a new home—in a dismal camp where war refugees are barely scraping out an existence. NPR reports that British street artist Banksy, who created "Dismaland" in the town of Weston-super-Mare, England, announced its fate on the park's website: "All the timber and fixtures from Dismaland are being sent to the 'jungle' refugee camp near Calais to build shelters," he wrote. "No online tickets will be available." Tickets sure sold well for the anarchy-and-inequality-themed park, the BBC reports, attracting 20 million euros to the town during its five-week run and selling out daily. An obvious parody of Disneyland, Dismaland included a pond installation with migrants filling a boat near an armed police vessel.

Fixtures from Dismaland are being dismantled Monday and will go to the so-called "jungle camp" in Calais, France, one of several refugee camps around the French port town, Reuters reports. Conditions there are no party: Tents everywhere, tattered clothes strewn left and right, and migrants from Syria, Darfur, Afghanistan, Eritrea, and Ethiopia living among the filth, NBC News reported last year. Numbering around 5,000, they're hoping to somehow make it to England. "The living conditions of the migrants are absolutely appalling and this is provoking increased tensions among different communities of migrants and also with the local population," says a UN refugee official in France. (Click to read more about Dismaland, the "unhappiest place on Earth.")

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