DESPITE Brexit Party founder Nigel Farage wimping out of his planned visit to Dundee, the city will still celebrate its diversity with a party.
Farage was supposed to be speaking at the Caird Hall in Dundee on September 12, and the Dundee Thegither organisation had planned a colourful and noisy “diversity party” to welcome him to the city.
The Brexit Party has confirmed that his appearance had been cancelled – it was his only scheduled event in Scotland as part of a UK-wide tour. His original decision to visit the city perplexed many locals as Dundee not only voted Yes for Scottish independence in 2014, but also voted 60-40 to Remain in the EU in 2016 and voted heavily for the SNP in the European elections in May.
A local SNP source said: “We suspect the real reason for the cancellation was that he hadn’t sold enough tickets to fill the front row of the Caird Hall which has a capacity of 2300. It looks very wimpish to pull out at this stage.”
Dundee Thegither are disappointed that they could not deliver their message about diversity being a strength of Scotland to Farage in person, but have decided that the Big Diversity Party will go ahead in his absence.
Co-organiser Heather McLean said: “We are going ahead with the Big Diversity Party due to public demand and willingness for musicians and dancers to take part – we have confirmation from Sheena Wellington, the Staffin Island Ceilidh Band, Indian dancers from the Bharatiya Ashram Centre, DJ Howard from Afrobeats and a group of Salsa dancers as well as others who are keen to take part.
“We’ve had positive responses from our Facebook page and from folk on the the indy march in Aberdeen on Saturday who are hoping we go ahead with the event.
“The Big Diversity Party will now be indoors in the Marryat Hall which actually adjoins the Caird Hall.
“The European Movement in Scotland have promised financial assistance for expenses and we are keeping our crowdfunder going to cover the cost of the hall hire – we may need to ticket this to make sure we don’t go over capacity so tickets will soon be available on Eventbrite.
“We will also be asking anyone attending brings a donation of food for the locally run food bank Taught by Mohammed which works closely with communities in Dundee.”
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