Festival
Banksy's Festival prints (also known as Destroy Capitalism) portray members of various subcultures buying anti-capitalist t-shirts. The parallel apparent between the artwork’s subjects and the attendees of his Barely Legal exhibition, where the print was first released, aids Banksy’s satirical distillation of consumerist hypocrisy.
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Meaning & Analysis
Also known as Destroy Capitalism, Banksy’s irreverent Festival, first produced in 2006, makes no secret of the artist’s anti-consumerist beliefs. A three-colour screenprint from 2006, printed by Modern Multiples of Los Angeles, it depicts a group of people at a music festival queuing up to buy t-shirts.
This Banksy print was made for his iconic Barely Legal exhibition, which took place in a warehouse in LA in 2006. Festival screenprints were part of the Barely Legal Print Set, a set of six prints which includes the works Applause, Grannies, Morons, Trolleys and Sale Ends.
The individuals depicted in the Festival queue are presented as punks, goths and hippies, with their clothes, haircuts and attitudes representative of these subcultures and giving the impression that they are attending an ‘alternative’ music festival. They represent what society might consider ‘misfits’ or perhaps anti-capitalists, but while their taste in music seems to demonstrate a disavowal of society, as they queue up to buy a $30 t-shirt their spending habits belie the trap capitalism holds for even its most fervent opponents.
The work can also be read as an ironic comment on how independent and anti-globalisation events, like alternative music festivals, for example, have now become hypocritical versions of themselves, contradicting the usual motto of their audiences.
The irony of the work unintentionally reached its climax in 2013, however, when Walmart, the American multinational retail corporation which operates in 27 countries and thus embodies capitalism, sold a series of Banksy's Festival posters at a markup through their online marketplace. In retaliation, American artist Eddie Colla released a new print entitled It's Only Stealing If You Get Caught directly accusing Walmart of selling ‘glorified vandalism’.
