Latitude Festival drop Barclays sponsorship amid Israel boycott
After months of protests, boycott action, and calls for festivals – including Download, Latitude Festival and the Isle of Wight Festival – to sever their ties with Barclays, these events have removed all Barclays branding from their websites. The news comes after multiple artists dropped out of both Latitude and Download in solidarity with Palestine.
Barclays has been heavily criticised in recent months for its alleged financial ties to weapons manufacturing and supplying arms to Israeli forces in Gaza. As a result, the bank’s sponsorship of cultural events like The Great Escape, Download, Latitude and The Isle of Wight Festival has been the target of growing protests spearheaded by the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
For their part, a spokesperson for Barclays previously clarified the bank’s position, saying, “We provide vital financial services to US, UK and European public companies that supply defence products to NATO and its allies. Barclays does not directly invest in these companies”. Nevertheless, many artists felt apprehensive to attach their name to a Barclays-sponsored event.
Up until now, none of the festivals targeted by the BDS movement have really acknowledged the protests, even when over 100 artists dropped out of The Great Escape mere days before the festival was due to take place. The latest wave of boycott action came this week when Leeds-based thrash metal outfit Pest Control announced a boycott of Download Festival, which was soon followed by the likes of Speed, Scowl and Zulu.
In the days that followed this period of action, Barclays was temporarily removed from the ‘Partners’ section of the Download Festival website, before reappearing soon after. Now, the branding has once again been removed from the site, in addition to promotional material for Latitude and The Isle of Wight Festival.
Rather than merely removing the branding, however, it seems as though these festivals have severed ties with the bank entirely. A representative from Latitude Festival, due to take place in Suffolk next month, told Sky News, “Following discussion with artists, we have agreed with Barclays that they will step back from sponsorship of Latitude Festival”. Download and Isle of Wight are yet to speak on the matter.
At the time of writing, it is unclear whether the artists who have previously announced their boycotting of the affected festivals will be reinstated to the line-up or not. Regardless, this is being seen as a huge victory for the BDS movement and will likely lead to less disruption within the festival world as the season progresses.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.