More than a thousand people vowed to attend an egg-throwing contest at a statue unveiling of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in her hometown.
A Facebook page dedicated to not just throwing eggs at the statue, but also hauling it down and tarnishing it with graffiti, has so far attracted more than 8,000 people, with more than 2,300 others stating they will attend, according to the The New York Post.
“Bois and girls and me non binarys, we out here holding contest for egg throwing, lassos throwing, and potentially graffiti art,” the event’s organizer, Kass Arif, wrote on Facebook.
“Where are we doing this you might ask, well the in the wonderful city of Grantham, and we have a special target being made currently, a beautiful statue of the Iron Lady, now it’s a family friendly event so please be respectful and pick up ya litter.”
The 10 foot, bronze sculpture of the Iron Lady will be placed on a high plinth to ward off vandalism, making it over 20 feet tall.
The $400,000 statue in Grantham has prompted negative response from some residents, leading some to say its a waste of taxpayers money. Members of the local district council were asked to approve a further $133,00 for a special event to unveil the monument.
“Wasting £100k on a future rubble pile in the middle of a pandemic which is being used as a justification to completely wipe out public spending,” a Twitter user wrote.
Sculptor Douglas Jennings designed the statue in honor of Britain’s first woman prime minister.
This is not the first time a statue of a British historical figure has been targeted this year in the UK, earlier this summer in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, vandals began tearing down monuments. In London’s Parliament Square, a statue of former Prime Minister and war hero Winston Churchill was sprayed with graffiti and forced to be boarded-up for several days.
There has been no set date for the statue’s unveiling.