An event celebrating UK creativity between March and October, dubbed the 'Brexit Festival' to the chagrin of organizers, drew far fewer visitors than expected but its manager on Tuesday refused to admit it was a 'a failure.
The festival, which showcased artistic, scientific and technological projects across the kingdom, was announced in 2018 by former Prime Minister Theresa May who said it would mark
"a moment of national renewal"
after the departure of the United Kingdom of the European Union.
But the event called “Unboxed: Creativity in the UK”, endowed by the British government with a budget of 120 million pounds (138 million euros), only attracted 18 million people between March and October according to organizers, far from the stated objective of 66 million visitors.
Worse, barely three million people physically traveled to take part in the events in 107 cities and towns across the country, with many celebrations being streamed online.
The flop is such that a parliamentary committee last month asked a control and audit body to investigate the management of the festival to understand
“how so much taxpayers' money could have been wasted for so little in return. »
.
For the director of "Unboxed", Phil Batty, it is still
"a great success"
.
"These cultural experiences have shown the best of science, the best of tech and the best of art, live and online
," he told the BBC on Tuesday.
The goal
“of 66 million has never been a visitor target for this program
,” he said.
“This was an ambition for the project as we wanted to include the whole of the UK”
.
More than six years after the referendum on leaving the European Union, Brexit remains a hot topic in the UK.
According to a YouGov poll published last week, support for Brexit is at an all-time low, with 56% of Britons now believing it was a mistake.
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