Banksy Floats Raft at Glastonbury to Warn of Worsening Migrant Crisis
The secretive artist Banksy released a lifeboat filled with fake passengers into a crowd at a concert last Friday. (screenshot Maya Pontone/Hyperallergic via @Banksy on Instagram)
During a concert by the British punk rock band Idles at the Glastonbury Festival, a Banksy piece appeared unexpectedly. It featured an inflatable life raft with fake passengers. Videos and pictures shared on social media captured the moment when thousands of fans lifted the raft above their heads in a crowd-surfing manner while the band played their song "Danny Nedelko," which celebrates immigrants.
The life raft, containing eight fake passengers wearing orange life jackets, looked very similar to the ones used by refugees from North Africa and Southwest Asia who cross the English Channel to get to the UK. Over 29,400 people arrived in the UK in 2023 by traveling on small boats through the rough waters of the channel. The migrant crisis has become a major issue in the past ten years due to numerous drownings in the Channel and the Mediterranean Sea.
Over the weekend, the mysterious street artist Banksy verified that they had released a raft into the audience at Glastonbury Festival. They shared a video of the moment on Instagram.
During the Idles concert, one of the most talked-about moments was when a fake migrant boat appeared on stage. But that's not the only political statement they made: they also got the audience to chant "Fuck the King!" and called for a ceasefire in Gaza at the end of their set. The band told the Guardian that they didn't know about the life raft stunt until after the concert. The boat also made an appearance during rapper Little Simz's performance on Saturday.
The raft received mixed reactions on social media, with some users debating whether the artwork was a thought-provoking critique or disrespectful to the struggles of asylum seekers. Conservative politician James Cleverly expressed his disapproval of the raft in an interview with Sky News, referring to it as "disgusting" and vowing to crack down on criminal gangs and individuals involved in illegal immigration.
Recently, the governments in the UK and Europe have put in place stricter measures at their borders and implemented policies against immigration to try and stop refugees from making dangerous trips. In April, the UK parliament made a controversial decision to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, and shortly after, five migrants died while attempting to cross the English Channel from France to the UK.
In the year 2020, Banksy funded a hidden ship to support North African migrants attempting to migrate to Europe. The vessel was painted in bright pink with a Banksy artwork of a child holding a heart-shaped lifebuoy. The boat successfully saved 89 individuals. However, in the previous year, the Italian government stopped the boat for breaking laws related to non-governmental rescue ships.
Maya Pontone, who prefers she/her pronouns, writes news articles for Hyperallergic. She is originally from the northern part of New Jersey but now lives in Brooklyn. Maya covers daily news stories, both local to New York City and from around the world.
