It’s the final day of Banksy’s Cut & Run - the finale of a period for the history books in Glasgow’s cultural scene.
Over two months on from The Herald breaking the news that the artist had chosen the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) as home to his first solo exhibition in 14 years, the buzz around Royal Exchange Square remains just as fervent - heightened, even, with the thrill of the last minute rush.
Queues at the box office for those who were trying their luck on a last minute ticket began in the early hours of the morning with the front of the queue taking their places at 4.15am for the 8am sales to begin. It was worth the early rise to guarantee a place - all remaining walk-in slots for the day were sold out by 9.30am, taken by those who had queued.
I had thought the last minute goers might have been more local - people from Glasgow who hadn’t quite gotten round to going, and then thought they better take the chance to see the world renowned artist while he was on their doorstep. In fact, there were people from all over the world in the queue, Graham, who is Head of Security, told me - a lot from “down south” and a few Americans as well. “The furthest was probably Alaska,” he says.
One Banksy fan who had made the journey across the Atlantic for a three-day trip to Glasgow was 49-year-old Jeff from Chicago. “It’s a spectacular chance to peer behind the curtain, and walk through his biography,” he says of his decision to make the trip.
Another Banksy aficionado from the US was 31-year-old Adam from Atlanta, Georgia, who was accompanied by his friend Sam, 22 from Hertfordshire. The pair met online through art groups and forums and have since met up several times.
Adam explains the love he has for Banksy that has seen him travel across the globe: “I’ve been following Banksy since I was 21. I’ve seen Banksy’s art before - I went to the Barely Legal exhibition in Los Angeles in 2006. A friend of mine did production for that.
“It’s dope, I’m just happy to be here - I’m psyched, I really am,” he says.
I ask whether the pair were amongst those queuing for tickets in the last morning rush, or if it has been a more organised affair with pre-booked tickets: “Dude, I just flew almost 7000 kilometres to get here. I’ve had tickets since they announced them,” Adam replies.
Read more: Explained: How you can choose where Banksy's Cut & Run goes next
The exhibition’s last day is not just about those rushing at the last minute - friends Lee and Alistair from Norwich inform me how special it is considered amongst Banksy fans to be there as the show closes.
“I’ve been already, I came up at the start of July, but I wanted to come for the last day as well. There’s a lot of nice people coming - there’s a Banksy forum and there’s lots of people on there who have all come down together so it’s a nice community to share that experience,” 40-year-old Alistair explains.
Lee, who is going into the exhibition for the first time, adds: “On the last day people are always wondering if he is going to release a print, or what’s he going to do, there’s lots of rumours going about.”
It’s not their first time at a Banksy closing day - the friends attended the final day of Banksy’s Dismaland exhibition in Weston-super-Mare in 2015, and have also travelled to Jerusalem together to see the artist’s work there.
Meanwhile, excitement builds in the queue as fans who have waited either hours earlier that morning or months with prebooked tickets for the day to arrive, are finally moments away from seeing inside.
Falling into that first group are Almudena and her daughter Amaya, who have travelled from the Basque Country to see Banksy with Almudena’s sister Paloma, who has lived in Glasgow for the last seven years. The two planned the visit specifically to coincide with Banksy being in Glasgow as well as their sister - Amaya has seen Banksy’s work in Amsterdam, and Paloma in Bristol. “We’re going to follow him around the world,” jokes Almudena.
Banksy announced over the exhibition’s last weekend that fans would be able to choose where Cut & Run goes next. Graham tells me: “A lot of people in the line have been asking where it’s going and making suggestions. A lot of people are saying it should go to London, however I don’t think it should - I think London is over-saturated so it would get lost.
“For me, I think he’s got a lot of ties to America. He’s done a lot of stuff in the New York museums and in San Francisco, so I think it should go to America."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here