This is amazing. Legendary artist Banksy has created a very, ahem, unique theme park:

The castle’s derelict, Cinderella’s pumpkin has crashed, and the seagulls are on the attack … Banksy has opened a theme park called Dismaland at a disused lido in Weston-super-Mare. The show has been shrouded in secrecy for weeks, and locals had been led to believe it was a film set for a Hollywood thriller. Take the first look inside.

Mark Brown, writing for The Guardian, explains a little bit more about how the project came to be:

The name is a play on Disneyland, but Banksy insisted the show was not a swipe at Mickey and co. “I banned any imagery of Mickey Mouse from the site,” he said. “It’s a showcase for the best artists I could imagine, apart from the two who turned me down.”

Works by 58 handpicked artists including Damien Hirst and Jenny Holzer have been installed across the 2.5-acre site. Julie Burchill has rewritten Punch & Judy to give it a Jimmy Savile spin. Jimmy Cauty, once part of the KLF, is displaying his version of a fun model village complete with 3,000 riot police in the aftermath of major civil unrest.

It’s absolutely crazy. For some reason, there’s something deeply unnerving about abandoned theme parks. Banksy’s vision seems straight out of many people’s darkest dreams.

Sounds like fun.

Via Daring Fireball.