Carnival criticised for promoting t-shirt with guns and knives

The chief executive of an award-winning Bristol charity resigned from the board of St Paul’s Carnival in protest following the carnival’s social media accounts promoting a t-shirt featuring guns and knives.

Despite artist Alright Mate saying that the guns shooting flowers and the broken knives were meant to promote a peaceful message, some of the criticism of his design was also due to it sharing close similarities with a work painted by Inkie in 2018.

The social media posts on the carnival’s Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts were removed on Saturday morning but not before being roundly condemned.

On Saturday evening, a lengthy statement from St Paul’s Carnival admitted they “fell far short” in endorsing the unofficial t-shirt, which they said was agreed by a former member of staff.

The statement also apologised to Inkie “for any offence caused” but failed to mention Tutton’s resignation from the carnival board or his contribution to the organisation.

Inkie’s 50-year anniversary St Paul’s Carnival design from 2018 – photo: Inkie

Inkie said that “adding guns to a fake version of my graphic is offensive”, saying that the carnival’s social media posts were “embarrassing” and calling Alright Mate a “copyright loser”.

Alright Mate also removed his posts promoting the t-shirt, part of the profits from the sales of which were due to go to the carnival, which is returning to the streets of St Paul’s on July 1.

He denied that he had copied Inkie’s work, saying that he “wanted to make a tee to tribute St Paul’s, and of course I’ve taken inspo from that graffiti as part of St Paul’s. That design was made from scratch.”

The artist said that “the design was approved by St Paul’s Carnival”, adding: “I wanted to spread love and positivity. I’m not dumb. I didn’t want to promote no violence.”

Big Issue seller Jeff Knight was given a t-shirt by Alright Mate for his birthday – photo: Alright Mate / Instagram

In an email to his fellow directors of the carnival, Bristol Rovers Community Trust CEO Adam Tutton wrote: “It is with great regret that I am emailing you to officially tender my resignation from the Board of St Paul’s Carnival with immediate effect.

“I feel I have no choice in this matter after waking this morning to find a tweet from the official St Paul’s Carnival Twitter account, advertising an unofficial St Paul’s Carnival T shirt.

“Not only is this a fake version of the artist Inkie’s design (a close personal friend of mine), it may also be fraudulent and a breach of copyright.

“Furthermore, I was disgusted that somebody thought it appropriate to include images of guns and knives on a product advertising St Paul’s Carnival.

“We are all clearly aware of the problems guns and knives have within our communities, yet someone authorised this image to promote what is supposed to be a community event.”

The controversial unofficial t-shirt by Alright Mate was promoted on the St Paul’s Carnival social media channels – photo: Instagram

The statement from St Paul’s Carnival said: “The St Paul’s Carnival planning team would like to apologise for the artistic error of judgement in endorsing a t-shirt design from a local designer on our social platforms yesterday (Friday).

“We have withdrawn the social media messages and Alright Mate has also withdrawn his messages and the t-shirt from sale.

“Alright Mate generously offered to share some of the proceeds from the sale of his unofficial St Paul’s Carnival-themed t-shirt in good faith.

“We have today investigated the process taken in reviewing the design and the original endorsement was agreed by a former member of staff who is no longer part of the organisation.

“While we have robust processes in place for reviewing all collaborations, it is clear that on this occasion we fell far short. We will be reviewing our internal approval processes to make sure we do not make the same mistake in future.

“We would like to acknowledge that Alright Mate’s offer to support Carnival was well intentioned. We sincerely apologise to everyone involved and to the wider community for the offence this has caused.

“Understandably, some members of the community have raised concerns over the design, despite the intended peaceful message.

“We represent the coming together, unity and the celebration of African-Caribbean culture and strongly oppose anything with links to violence and the endangering of lives.

“We also acknowledge Inkie’s comments regarding the similarities between his original design for the Carnival in 2018 and the t-shirt produced by Alright Mate and we apologise to Inkie for any offence caused.

“Alright Mate has requested to engage with Inkie to explain his creative process, something we also welcome.

“We will now continue to focus on delivering this year’s full carnival programme and look forward to engaging positively with everyone as we move forward.”

Main photo: St Paul’s Carnival / Instagram

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• St Paul’s Carnival to return for 2023
• ‘Carnival tells a story about our culture, heritage and resistance’
• Gas Girls in special collaboration with St Paul’s Carnival

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