UK cafe hosting immersive ‘9/11 watch party’ for customers to ‘relive’ tragedy on its anniversary

A UK cafe has been called out after it shared that on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, it will be hosting a “watch party” for customers “relive” and “re-enact” the event. 

The Wild Boscombe Cafe in Bournemouth is hosting the event, as part of the Adam Curtis Party conference, put on by a political arts group. It plans to share footage from the New York World Trade Centre attacks to customers, and will re-run television broadcasts from the day in real-time, as though it were happening right now. The event has been marketed as a chance to “relive” the tragedy. 

Anyone who attends the event has been asked to hand in their phones, to fully immerse themselves in what they are watching. “Relive the highest moment of hypernormalisation and experience again the fear, tears and paranoia of the live news channel analysis and raw footage of the event,” the group said on its website. 

via Verdurin

It added: “By the end of the evening, you will have been taken in by the ineluctable seductive power of conspiracy theories popularised by ‘truthers’ on social media and inspired to rebuild New York City’s skyline by artistic responses commissioned by the Port Authority.”

Tickets are £15, and the site advertised there is still a chance to “join us for the most avant-garde event to take place in Bournemouth for many years.”

The description added: “If you were there when it happened you can refresh your memories. If you were too young, get a feel for what it was like as it happened…Mark the 25th anniversary of the demolition of the Twin Towers with a communal re-enactment of the drama.”

A local councillor has criticised the event, and warned it risked “turning a tragedy into a spectacle.” The cafe replied, and said the screening was “not intended as a celebration or trivialisation” of the attacks.

Christchurch Independents councillor Simon McCormack said: “This was a real human tragedy – not entertainment, a ‘watch party’ or an experience to be recreated for an audience. There are respectful ways to remember the victims, educate people about what happened and examine how the attacks changed the world.

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“But packaging their final moments and the suffering of their families as an immersive event crosses a line and risks turning tragedy into spectacle.”

via Everett/Shutterstock

As per the BBC, in an email, the curator of the event, Pierre d’Alancaisez said: “The news footage of the attacks marked a shift in how we relate to media, how we understand events, and what conclusions we draw from aesthetic experience relayed to us by television cameras.

“The focus of the screening and discussion is the unwitting role of media itself in pre-empting responses, such as paranoia or conspiratorial thinking. What we are showing are historical documents (already available to the public) that, owing to their ongoing global influence, warrant wide engagement and scrutiny.

“There will be no spectacle here (note, for example, that we are asking the audience to hand over their mobile phones so that they can concentrate on the image), other than the ‘spectacle’ constructed in 2001 by news organisations in real time.”

The owners of the Wild Cafe added in a statement: “We completely understand why the title, particularly when seen without context, has caused concern. The work is not intended as a celebration or trivialisation of the attacks.

“We recognise that the subject matter and deliberately provocative title will not be comfortable for everyone, particularly on the 25th anniversary, and we respect that.”

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