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Long queues as five shops across Bristol sell Banksy t-shirts
People in the queues across Bristol to get Banksy t-shirts had devised various strategies to secure the limited edition merchandise, with all profits going to the Colston 4 defendants whose trial at Bristol Crown Court begins on Monday.
The location of the shops selling the shirts was revealed on Ujima Radio on Saturday morning. But thanks to Banksy’s global fame, it was almost impossible to listen to the station online.
So some people got into their cars to listen to the FM broadcast and positioned themselves in locations where they thought the t-shirts showing the empty Colston plinth would be likely to go on sale.
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At 9.18am, Ujima tweeted that the shops selling the t-shirts were Frontline Video on Ashley Road in St Paul’s, Hakuna Matata on Stapleton Road in Easton, That Thing on Stokes Croft, Friendly Records on North Street in Bedminster and Rough Trade on Nelson Street.
Soon after 10am, a white hire van from London-based 1st City Self Drive arrived at Frontline Video, with four boxes unloaded with the manufacturer Stanley/Stella on their sides.
Children’s shirts cost £25 while adult sizes cost £30, with Banksy writing on Instagram that “all proceeds (go) to the defendants so they can go for a pint”.
Outside Frontline, the queue stretched from Grosvenor Road, along Ashley Road and down Badminton Road.
Only a few hundred metres away at That Thing, the end of the queue was at Turbo Island having snaked up Hillgrove Street and along Jamaica Street.
Just minutes after the shops started selling the souvenir t-shirts, they begun appearing on resale sites including eBay with prices as high as £1000.
The queue from That Thing stretched up Hillgrove Street – photo: Martin Booth
Main photo & video: Martin Booth
Read more: ‘Colston 4’ plead not guilty to criminal damage
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