Banksy's Inflatable Raft Surfs Over IDLES' Crowd at Glastonbury

Banksy made a special appearance this weekend at Glastonbury in the form of an inflatable raft that surfed above IDLES' set. The artwork raises awareness to the growing refugee crisis that has been exacerbated by prime minister Rishi Sunak's hardline stance on immigration and the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, amongst many other geopolitical tensions across the world.

The raft appeared during the Bristol band's song "Danny Nedelko", which opens:

My blood brother is an immigrant
A beautiful immigrant

My blood brother’s Freddie Mercury
A Nigerian mother of three

He’s made of bones, he’s made of blood
He’s made of flesh, he’s made of love
He’s made of you, he’s made of me
Unity

Fear leads to panic, panic leads to pain
Pain leads to anger, anger leads to hate

Migration was an overarching conversation for Glastonbury this year, as the festival has a section dedicated to the theme in Terminal 1. The elusive street artist had created work before for Glasto, famously designing the Union Jack stab-proof vest Stormzy wore in 2019 and the van of stuffed animal livestock Banksy toured around the grounds in 2014.

Elsewhere at the festival, Serbian conceptual artist Marina Abramović performed one of her most daring acts yet, asking the raucous Pyramid Stage to stay silent for seven minutes as a tribute and call to action to the "dark moment" currently facing the socio-political order.

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