Festival UK* 2022 now named ‘Unboxed’ is the greatly anticipated ‘Festival of Brexit,’ but, between supply chain chaos, new expenses for holiday makers and British jobs being moved to the continent, exactly what they'll be celebrating we can’t be sure...
Organisers of ‘Unboxed’ (yes we have to use this ridiculous name) promise that it will showcase talent and creativity from across the devolved nations of the UK in the areas of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.
The only issue is that this celebration of Britain’s creativity takes place while the government continues to cut Britain’s creative funding and after Brexit has removed opportunities for huge portions of our creative and scientific sectors.
Britain has just lost access to the funds from the EU’s £1.1 billion Creative Europe programme - and the UK government hasn’t replaced those funds.
The government has also recently cut its funding to UK Research and Innovation - a key body behind scientific development and innovation.
And for all it claims to want to celebrate the arts, the government has approved a 50% funding cut to arts and design higher education courses and crippled new British musicians by removing their right to tour in the EU. New trade tariffs and work restrictions have also badly damaged creatives in the fashion industry.
Think we’ll go to Glastonbury this year thanks.