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24th Mar 2021

Plans announced for first ever Festival of Brexit

Claudia McInerney

‘Festival UK 2022’ aims to showcase the best of the nation’s “creativity” and “innovation”

A festival celebrating Brexit, which will cost around £120 million, is set to take place next year to celebrate the UK’s departure from the European Union.

The Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg referred to the event as the Festival of Brexit, however the event organisers have since attempted to downplay the political meaning of the festival.

The official name of the celebratory festival will be announced later this year, it has been reported.

During her time in office, Theresa May proposed the idea of a festival, which was subsequently supported by prime minister Boris Johnson.

Yesterday, the organisers of the £120m festival said that 10 teams had been successful in pitching ideas about the festival.

https://twitter.com/FestivalUK2022/status/1374662461442392065

The festival, currently nicknamed ‘Festival UK 2022’ until its official title is revealed, will celebrate British weather and a mass-scale grow-your-own food project, the Guardian reported.

The unique event aims to bring the British public together in order to celebrate the nation’s creativity, it has been reported.

The festival’s Chief Creative Officer, Martin Green, said that the planned events at the festival are “open, original and optimistic”.

During an interview with Kathy McArdle from the British Council, Green said: “It’s really a UK-wide celebration of our creativity and innovation. It has been designed in collaboration with all four nations of the UK to showcase the best of our art, culture, heritage, design and technology sectors.

“We want it to bring people together through memorable experiences, engage communities across the United Kingdom to celebrate our strengths, values and identities, and deliver a world class festival of creativity that looks beyond our borders to engage people from all over the globe.”

The exact dates of the celebrations have not yet been announced due to the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.