Curry kicking art show cancelled

Mr Stitt was going to wear silver platform boots

A performance artist paid £12,000 to kick a takeaway curry carton through a town centre has cancelled the event for fear of too much interest.

The proposed stunt was deemed a waste of taxpayers money when it was revealed Andre Stitt from Cardiff, was using the empty takeaway box to highlight rowdy Saturday night behaviour.

But he has been forced to cancel the White Trash Curry Kick show in Bedford because of safety worries about the anticipated size of the crowd.

He was awarded a grant by Bedford Creative Arts which was to film the performance art display for a forthcoming exhibition.

Mr Stitt will still be paid for other performance art shows

Director Sarah Bloomfield said: "We were not anticipating the huge interest by the media and the publicity it would create.

"We do not have the resources to marshal the event. The event would involve an awful lot of people and it really would not be safe.

"But its created a huge amount of publicity so it achieved what it set out to do. The fact that it is not going ahead is not important, it has already existed in the public arena."

The concept behind the take-away box performance was "to destabilise and question this revelry by kicking a take away curry and carton from one end of the High Street to the other."

Mr Stitt was set to wear silver platform boots as he kicked the box through Bedford high street.

Mr Stitt is performing eight other pieces as part of the town's art project include dropping red roses from an aircraft in memory of wartime band leader Glenn Miller and sitting in a garden shed talking to anybody who visits him.

The cancellation of the curry box kicking show will not affect the amount of money he is paid for his work.