Dismaland: A Twist On The Regular Creative Industry Theme Park

The amusement park’s sector evolved from three earlier traditions, including traveling and periodic fairs, pleasure gardens and exhibitions. Then, it is further developed from ages, from the concept of the fixed park to the modern theme park today. The modern theme park has different types, instead of the worldwide type theme parks like Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Hollywood, there are other types such as educational theme parks, family-owned theme parks and regional theme park. An amusement park is a place where it brings happiness and childhood memories, and it is a place that is suitable for all the age groups to go. However, there is an exception, Dismaland was a three-week temporary art exhibition theme park held on the 21 August2015 organized by the England anonymous street artist Banksy, his works mainly focus on satirical street art and subversive epigrams combines with dark humor, as well as organizing controversial and spectacular events. This “bemusement” park is a total sinister twist on Disneyland, according to Bansky, he described it as a “family theme park unsuitable for children".

Although this is a theme park, Bansky wants people to focus more on his sarcastic artworks, which contains his thoughts in the political and social aspect.The theme park sector is a huge money-making industry because amusement park is a place for people to enjoy, relax and create remarkable memories. Human beings always want happiness and time to relax, so the consumer demand for this experience will be enormous, they are willing to pay to get this experiences and memories. For the Dismaland itself, Banksy is not aiming for bringing happiness to the people, he wants something creative and extraordinary, as well as hope that the audiences understand the message in his artworks. The consumer demand for this “bemusement” park will not be the same as the traditional theme park, people are curious of this unique “bemusement” theme park, the consumers want totally different experiences and memories from the previous fantastic experiences. However, the consumer demand of Dismaland is not as huge as the traditional amusement park like Disneyland, but as a temporary theme park, it attracts lots of people all over the world and it seems to be a successful creative project.

The interaction between social and economic groups is a crucial element that can affect the successfulness of a creative production. With the help from the local government to allow and provide the place for exhibition, the employees and the other 58 street artists to exhibit their artworks, this event seems to be successful. There are some positive impacts for the social and economic groups such as bringing employment and increase tourism to the town in short-term. Although this event didn’t bring a huge impact to the country’s economy, the exposure rate of this seaside town’s increase, which may attract foreign investors, tourists to come in the future.In most of the theme parks or fun fairs, they might be sponsored or funded by some private organizations or even government. However, Dismaland this art project wasn’t funded by any private companies. According to the spokeswoman for the art project, she said that the venture was self-funded and unable to say if he was recouping his costs or making a profit. Through these 36 days event, Banksy sold 4000 tickets a day at £3 per ticket earning over £400000 in total, but it is hard to see there is a great profit because the amount of expenses is huge. The most possible strength of this theme park would be its uniqueness, this theme park is the very first theme park that doesn’t follow the traditional theme park which aims to create happy and memorable memories. This new kind of temporary theme park attracts people from different parts of the world to come and have a look, which can bring a large amount of revenue to the country and boost up the country’s short-term economy.

Another strength would be there are no big competitors compete with this theme park because it is located in a small seaside town, Banksy said “The advantage of putting an art in a small seaside town is you’re only competing with donkeys”. Yet the challenges of this temporary theme park would be there are lots of competitors in the sector and people may not appreciate this unconventional theme. Disneyland and Universal Studio are the big competitors of Dismaland, as they are worldwide, well-known and more suitable for a family activity, people may decide not to go Dismaland but other traditional fun fairs or theme parks near their neighborhood.

To conclude, Dismaland could be a successful creative production in the creative industry because this art project has brought visitors and tourists all over the world to Weston-Super-Mare town after the visit to the theme park. However, Dismaland is a twist on the traditional creative industry theme park as it is stated as “a sinister twist on Disneyland”.