Winter Wonderland apologises for 'disgusting' minstrel posters on show
Several posters depicting minstrel performers were spotted by a TikTok user at the London Christmas festival, which attracts millions of visitors each year.
Organisers of London's Winter Wonderland have apologised and removed posters depicting minstrel performers spotted near its circus after visitors branded them 'disgusting'.
Two large posters were spotted alongside a circus bar area at the hugely popular festive attraction, clearly showing a number of minstrels - white performers in 'Blackface' whose acts were based on racist stereotypes in the 19th and 20th centuries. Stunned visitors to the Hyde Park attraction spotted 'several' around the Winter Wonderland site.
Festival-goers expressed their shock after one TikTok video showing the wall coverings was viewed nearly 60,000 times. One visitor said: "Absolutely disgusting! Won’t be getting a penny of my money!", while another reacted: "I don’t understand what this has to do with winter wonderland."
The video was captured by Nazlee Radboy on TikTok, who said she did a 'double take' when she noticed the minstrel performance poster during a visit to Winter Wonderland last Wednesday. She captioned her video: “Idc if these posters are “fake” or “a part of circus history,” i think we should question why we still have circuses to begin with.”
The video shows two posters as part of circus-themed wall coverings on display by a bar near the circus of the annual Christmas festival. Winter Wonderland, situated in London’s Hyde Park, started in 2005 as a small funfair but is now one of the biggest Christmas events in the world, running for six weeks and attracting millions of visitors from around the world.
Nicky, 37, a liaison officer, was one of those who complained to Royal Parks about the posters.
She told Yahoo News: "In a day and age of awareness, how can such posters being displayed yet alone used?" Royal Parks forwarded Nicky's complaint onto Winter Wonderland who apologised and said they had removed the posters.
A spokesperson for Winter Wonderland told Nicky in an email seen by Yahoo News: "After being made aware of offensive imagery on a vintage vinyl wall covering at one of the venues at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, we took immediate action to remove from view several posters. The experience and wellbeing of our visitors is our utmost priority, and we apologise for any upset caused."
The poster seen in the video is a print advertising a circus show from 1900 by the De Elmar Trio, an acrobatic dance troupe that was put together by William H West, a so-called ‘progressive minstrel’. He was one of the first-ever owners of a group of Black minstrel performers.
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History of minstrel performances
Typically, minstrel shows were performed by white men who would do comedic performances based on racist racial stereotypes with Blackface and exaggerated lipstick to portray themselves as Black people. They would perform in front of a white audience and travel across the country, with the acts often depicting Black people in a negative light as dim-witted, cowardly and lazy.
This style of performance was popular in the US during the 19th century, concurrently with slavery, and peaked in popularity around the mid-19th century. In the UK, The Black and White Minstrel Show ran on the BBC for 20 years between 1958 to 1978.
After the US Civil War, minstrel performances done by Black people themselves became more commonplace before disappearing as their popularity faded during the 20th century and the civil rights movement progressed.
