Pest Control announce boycott of Download Festival in solidarity with Palestine
Days before Download Festival is set to take place at Donington Park, Leeds-based crossover thrash metal outfit Pest Control have pulled out of the event in solidarity with Palestine. Download is one of a growing number of festivals to be criticised for its sponsorship links to Barclays.
Barclays has been criticised for its ties to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, with links to various weapons manufacturing companies that are supplying arms to Israeli forces within the region. As a result, many campaigning and boycotting groups have been set up to challenge the bank’s participation in social and cultural events, particularly music festivals like Download.
In May, The Great Escape Festival was hit hard by the boycott movement, with over 100 artists pulling out of the festival due to its ties with Barclays. More recently, Irish singer-songwriter CMAT took a stand against the bank when she dropped out of the Latitude Festival line-up. At the time of writing, Pest Control are the first group to pull out of the Download line-up.
Posting to social media, the Leeds thrash band shared an explanation, saying, “We will not take part in an event whose sponsor profits from facilitating a genocide,” adding, “We’re sorry to anyone who was looking forward to seeing us perform. This is something we’ve been looking forward to for the best part of a year and was a big milestone for us as a band. However, we cannot sacrifice the principles held by this band and by the scene we come from and represent, just for personal gain”.
Download is set to take place from June 14th until June 17th, and it’s possible more artists will pull out of the line-up within the coming days. In the case of The Great Escape, for instance, many artists announced their boycott in the days prior to the festival in order to cause maximum disruption for organisers.
Barclays are also a major sponsor of The Isle of Wight Festival, Capital’s Summertime Ball, Lytham Festival and Camp Bestival but, thus far, it seems as though The Great Escape was the most affected by boycotting.
The Barclays sponsorship is not the only cause of controversy at Download this year. The booking of American heavy metal outfit Pantera due to their lead singer Phil Anselmo. Back in 2016, Anselmo’s appearance at Download, with the supergroup Down, was cancelled after the singer was seen shouting “white power” while giving a Nazi salute at a concert. The frontman later apologised for his actions, stating, “It was ugly, it was uncalled for.”
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