On Friday, June 28, a Banksy work – an inflatable life raft and prop passengers – was quietly unveiled during a concert by British punk rock band Idles at the Glastonbury festival. Video taken by concertgoers Photos posted on social media showed thousands of spectators crowd-surfing and lifting the raft above their heads as the band sang the pro-immigrant song “Danny Nedelko” (2018).
The life raft, which held eight fake passengers wearing orange life jackets, was very similar to the ones used by refugees crossing the English Channel from North Africa and Southwest Asia to the UK. In 2023, more than 29,400 people arrived in the UK in small boats crossing the rough waters of the English Channel. The migrant crisis has attracted widespread attention over the past decade, with mass drownings in the English Channel and the Mediterranean.
On Sunday, anonymous street artist Banksy confirmed they had released a raft into the crowd at Glastonbury Festival by posting video footage of the event on Instagram.
While the prop migrant boat was one of the most talked-about moments at the Idles concert, it certainly wasn’t the only political message: The band also led thousands of fans in a collective chant of “Fuck the King!” and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza at the end of the concert. The band told guardian They didn’t know about the life raft stunt until after the show. The life raft also made an appearance during rapper Little Simz’s show on Saturday.
Raft The piece appeared to divide opinion on social media, with X users arguing over whether it was a brilliant commentary on the asylum seekers’ experiences or offensive — Conservative politician James Cleverly Sky News In the interview, he called the rafts “despicable” and promised to prosecute criminal gangs and “people smugglers.”
In recent years, the UK and European governments have introduced stricter border enforcement measures and anti-immigration policies to stop refugees from making these dangerous journeys. To this end, the UK Parliament passed controversial legislation in April to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda; hours later, five migrants died while trying to cross the English Channel from France to the UK.
In 2020, Banksy funded a secret ship to help North African refugees trying to reach Europe. The boat, painted bright pink and featuring Banksy’s original children holding heart-shaped lifebuoys, rescued 89 people. Last year, Italian authorities seized the boat for violating Italian laws on non-governmental rescue ships.
