A cafe in Bournemouth is facing calls for a boycott after advertising a £15-a-head 9/11 "watchalong party," which residents and a local councillor have condemned as tasteless and disrespectful. The event, planned for Friday at the Wild Boscombe Cafe, marks the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and invites guests to relive rolling news coverage of the disaster in real time, prompting anger from locals who say it trivialises a tragedy in which nearly 3,000 people died.

The apparently sold-out screening is being staged as an art installation by political arts group Verdurin, part of the Adam Curtis Party Conference, and is curated by Pierre d'Alancaisez, who framed it as an exploration of how live television shaped the "hyperreality" of the 21st century. Cafe owners insisted it was "not intended as a celebration or trivialisation" of the attacks, but residents including Kath McGurl, Steve Cox, Jacqueline Russell and Karen Coastal — the latter of whom was in New York that day — branded it "sickening" and "abhorrent." Councillor Simon McCormack said packaging the victims' final moments as an "immersive event" crossed a line and urged organisers to reconsider.