Banksy has made his mark on once again. The orchestrated a stunt that took place at the famed performing arts festival in Somerset, England, on Friday, as the ’s Ben Beaumont-Thomas reports. During a performance by the punk band , an inflatable life raft filled with dummy passengers appeared atop the crowd—a clear reference to migrants traversing the English Channel, who have been targeted by the United Kingdom’s immigration .
The raft appeared during the song “ ,” which champions immigration and equality. “My blood brother is an immigrant, a beautiful immigrant,” it begins, building to its plain-spoken chorus: “Fear leads to panic; panic leads to pain. Pain leads to anger; anger leads to hate.
” Due to the song’s lyrics, the crowd initially thought the raft was a part of Idles’ performance. Over the weekend, however, a representative for Idles confirmed that the band didn’t know about it until after the fact, according to the . Later, the raft appeared for a second time during rapper Little Simz’s set.
On Sunday, Banksy of the raft surfing across the crowd to his Instagram page, which is how he usually takes credit for his artworks and installations. It’s not the first time that Banksy has made a statement at Glastonbury, one of the largest music and performing arts festivals in the world. In 2019, the artist painted with a black and white Union Jack for the high-profile British rapper , who wore the garment during his set.
Back in 2014, Bank.
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