UK's £120m Unboxed Festival faces National Audit Office inquiry over spending and visitor numbers

The National Audit Office will investigate the UK's Unboxed Festival, a £120 million project originally called Festival UK* 2022 by former prime minister Theresa May. Launched in March 2022, the event was nicknamed the 'Festival of Brexit' by Jacob Rees-Mogg. Intended to echo the 1951 Festival of Britain, it attracted only 238,000 visitors, far below the 66 million target, according to a Politics Home report. Conservative MP Julian Knight, chair of a cross-party parliamentary committee that requested the NAO assessment, criticized the spending as exorbitant for a celebration that failed to capture public attention. Organizers defended the festival, with chief Martin Green last month calling it value for money, and a spokesperson this week argued visitor figures misrepresented engagement, noting they only counted attendance at eight of 107 physical locations.