A cafe planning a 9/11 watchalong party for £15 a head is facing a boycott threat as residents rebel against the show.
The event will invite guests at the Wild Boscombe Cafe in Bournemouth, Dorset to 'relive' the world's deadliest terror attack as if it were happening in real time.
It will take place on Friday, marking 25 years since nearly 3,000 people were killed when two planes crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York City on September 11, 2001.
Guests have been invited to leave their phones at the door and 'experience again the fear, tears, and paranoia of the live news channel analysis and raw footage of the disaster'.
Owners of the venue insisted the screening - which appears to have sold out - was 'not intended as a celebration or trivialisation' of the attacks.
But locals took to social media to criticise the event, which is set to feature rolling footage of the news coverage on the day.
Kath McGurl said: 'That idea is in very bad taste. Boycotting that cafe now.'
Steve Cox added: 'Anything to make a bit of money. Just sickening.'
The Wild Boscombe Cafe in Bournemouth, pictured, is planning a 9/11 watchalong party for £15 a head but is facing a boycott threat as residents rebel against the show
It will take place on Friday, marking 25 years since nearly 3,000 people were killed when two planes crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York City on September 11, 2001
Jacqueline Russell said: 'Having watched this unfolding the first time round, I cannot understand anyone wanting to again.
'It was sickening. A macabre curiosity? I don't think so.'
Karen Coastal said: 'Speaking as someone who was in New York that day this is abhorrent. Absolutely mindless.'
The art installation is being staged by political arts group Verdurin, as part of the Adam Curtis Party Conference, and is described by organisers as 'an opportunity to review once more the raw television image'.
The event is curated by Pierre d'Alancaisez, of Verdurin, who said: 'That the live television images of September 11th attacks would define the twenty-first century was evident even to the news anchors as they narrated the events.
'So much so that the archive video reveals them revising the story as it unfolds, creating a true conspiracy in real time.
'The anniversary affords an opportunity to review once more the raw television image, our hyperreality's fundamental building block.'
Verdurin's website describes itself as addressing 'urgent cultural, political, and philosophical questions through visual culture'.
An online listing described the watch along as the 'most avant-garde event to take place in Bournemouth for many years'.
It read: '9/11 Watch Party rebroadcasts the responses of the mainstream media, twinning them with conspiratorial commentators in an installation of overwhelming scale.
'By the end of the evening, you will have been taken in by the seductive power of conspiracy theories.
'If you were there when it happened, you can refresh your memories. If you were too young, get a feel for what it was like as it happened.'
And Brian Jenner, a speechwriter who is organising the 9/11 watch party, said he is 'absolutely baffled' by the negative reaction to it.
'We all have memories of historic events like the JFK shooting, Princess Diana's death and the invasion of Iraq,' he added.
'We're looking at 9/11 from a media perspective, how it was portrayed and how it became a spectacle.
'If you revisit how it happened you can gain a different perspective of it. I just want to promote conversation and that is what a cafe is for.
'If someone pays £15 for a ticket they can come along and abuse me for two and a half hours.
'If you don't want to pay the money that's fine and you can get on with your life. You don't have to come.'
Cllr Simon McCormack said he was 'concerned' by the plans, adding: 'This was a real human tragedy - not entertainment, a 'watch party' or an experience to be recreated for an audience.
'There are respectful ways to remember the victims, educate people about what happened and examine how the attacks changed the world.
'But packaging their final moments and the suffering of their families as an immersive event crosses a line and risks turning tragedy into spectacle.
'I do not believe this is appropriate for Bournemouth, particularly on such a significant anniversary.
'I urge the organisers and venue to reconsider out of respect for the victims, survivors and their families.'
An advert for the watch party. Owners of the venue insisted the screening - which appears to have sold out - was 'not intended as a celebration or trivialisation' of the attacks
The owners of the cafe told the BBC: 'We completely understand why the title, particularly when seen without context, has caused concern.
'We recognise that the subject matter and deliberately provocative title will not be comfortable for everyone, particularly on the 25th anniversary, and we respect that.'
The attacks saw 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijack four commercial passenger planes in the US, including the two which crashed into the Twin Towers.
Another plane struck the Pentagon near Washington DC, while a fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania, thought to have been targeting the White House or the Capitol Building.