Last Saturday, a crew from Reading made the 2-hour excursion to central Bristol to visit the Banksy vs Brisol Museum exhibition. It promised to be very good and we were all very excited about it!

Once we arrived there was the predictably long queue – almost exactly 2 hours of waiting in on-and-off drizzle, in fact.

Coren, Dan and Tim looking surprisingly happy, considering the situation

The second (of three) stages of queueing

There was a little Banksy entertainment to keep the waiting crowds occupied – on the final approach to the museum, this piece of work became apparent:

Ronald McDonald considers his options

Once we were inside it was more than worth the wait! Banksy and his crew had pulled out all the stops to put on a brilliant show.

Opening the “Art of Banksy” section was an enclosed area featuring the tools that Banksy uses to complete his guerilla work – used stencils, paint, drawings and scribbled notes. This was one of my favourite pieces from the opening room; the painted line stretched all over the floor, walls and round the artwork.

Banksy draws a line

The next area of the museum featured various animatronic creations, all of which were outstanding. From the old and frail Tweetie Pie, the “living” fish fingers, hotdogs and chicken nuggets, to this wonderful creation with CCTV cameras.

A CCTV and baby CCTV camera in their nest(enhanced due to low light)

By far my favourite work, and the best-executed, in the animatronic section was this excellent artistic monkey. He was continually blinking and breathing, which when you first noticed it was very unnerving!

The "living" artistic monkey

Banksy also had his way with a few bits and pieces in the rest of the museum. He had fun with a couple of pieces in the “expensive painting” bits:

Banksy's interpretation

Banksy breaks out of the frame

And finally, he hid a few extras in the rest of the museum’s cabinets…

Something unusual...

... and something inappropriate

All in all, everyone there had a great day. After we had finished at Banksy we went on a bit of an explore around Bristol, had some lunch, went “in” the Apple store, then paid a visit to Ikea on the way home.

You can also check out @timmorgan’s Flickr photo set of the day here.

Look out for news on the next #RDGTweetup Great Expedition, plans are already afoot! We hope to see you there.