Things I've Shot

To start the dismal experience, the clouds rolled in with that looked like imminent rain. Parking was surprisingly easy seeing as Dismaland was set to be probably one of the biggest events ever to hit Weston-Super-Mare.

As the sun began its decent, we made our way from the touristy end towards the old Tropicana pool where the dismal experience would begin. We were greeted by a queue and told to join the back. Luckily once the doors opened it didn’t take long to enter (maybe this wouldn’t be so dismal after all)…

The staff at Dismaland kept to the dismal theme very well and regularly told visitors off for laughing/smiling and recommending that we just turned around and went home because it was that rubbish inside.

Many of the seaside favourites were there including Punch and Judy, a ferris wheel, knock the anvil over with a ping pong ball, etc.

The exhibitions and art displays were fantastic. Tents, old buses, sheds, disused caravans and other structures lined the old Tropicana swimming pool full of art and thought provoking pieces.

The whole place was very enjoyable in a dismal sort of way. As the sun disappeared more of the lights around the ‘Bemusement Park’ came on and almost at the same time, so did the rain.

We decided at this point that it would be a good time to explore some of the indoor exhibitions and get some shelter. The queues were once again quite big but worth it. Even if the staff did advise us other wise…

Being primarily a graffiti/street art event, the venue had many of the very famous and very well recognised Banksy stencils dotted around. Once the rain had stopped we went for another lap outside, this time spotting a lot more of the smaller details that weren’t initially picked up on the first pass.

I’ve always liked Banksy’s work and been a fan of all sorts of different art in general. However, knowing how big the Tropica was before hand I expected we would spend a maximum of 2 hours wondering around. I did not expect to be looking at my watch close to 3 and a half hours later realising the event would soon be shutting and there was still bits we hadn’t seen.

Well worth the £3 entry fee.