Thread by @nicktolhurst

+UPDATE+

The festival of Brexit, launched as festival of UK, then rebranded as UNBOXED to avoid the unfortunate “FUK-22” abbreviation is being rapidly scaled down due to Covid.

The original plan - a year long festival in 2022 - has now been reduced to just 7 months.

However given Covid restrictions, visa restrictions & UK’s continuing poor Covid performance the organisers are now focussing on involving UK schools to rescue the £120 million project.

The project may now be forced to launch “more remotely” for its new official launch date just 2 months away on the 1st March if Covid continues to be a problem.

While the projects have - in theory - now all been decided, the organisers have stopped giving specific project date information as it’s unclear on the timing & scope of what’s happening.

Instead information packs & outreach to schools/colleges being stepped up.

Promotion also radically being scaled down.
The new website unboxed2022.uk
just been launched geared to schools & outreach projects rather than as a general mass/tourist event.

While its official Twitter account has barely more than a 1 000 followers.

Additionally some of the key projects will not even last the “full” 7 months but have now been cut back to summer events lasting a couple of months or even, in one case, just a few weeks.

This is a very different festival to the one envisaged by the May govt just 3 years ago.