This was the ‘bizarre’ moment artists in Manchester staged a re-enactment of Princess Diana’s funeral on the 21st anniversary of her death.

The stunt - billed as The Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales 2.0 - featured a smashed up car imitating the crashed Mercedes Diana was travelling in when she was killed in a Paris underpass.

It also included a Jimmy Savile impersonator, while writer Jonathan Meades played the role of Diana’s brother Charles, Earl Spencer and read his original funeral speech in full.

A live Mexican mariachi band performed Elton John’s Candle in the Wind at the White Hotel nightclub in Strangeways.

The coffin arrived in an Uber and ‘mourners’, who were asked to dress in black or Goth-style clothes, threw broccoli and flowers as it was carried into the club, in a old industrial unit on Dickinson Street.

Photographer Karen Priestley, 49, attended the event on Thursday.

She said: “There must have been around 160 people there and some of them looked emotional.

“People were carrying flowers and broccoli - a lot of those attending would be too young to remember the original.

“It was sick and bizarre, there was a smashed-up car imitating the vehicle Diana was in when she died.

“It was covered in flowers and they had a picture of Diana with roses next to it.

“The final service was a word-for-word reenactment of her funeral - and they even had an actor playing Diana’s brother to read his speech.

“They had somebody dressed up as a priest and a man dressed as a high priest.

The White Hotel's Twitter account shared this picture of a poster for the event - with the image of Jimmy Savile torn out

The procession started at 6.30pm and the route wound its way through the backstreets around the club.

The White Hotel’s description of the event said: “See it as a purge after another year of pointless patriotism.

“The World Cup may not be coming home but our Queen of Hearts has just ordered a taxi and she’s on her way.”

Austin Collings, artistic director, added: “This is not a work of art, but an exorcism.”

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