Barclays Suspends Pageant Sponsorships Following Artist Protests

(CelebrityAccess) — British banking large Barclays has suspended its sponsorship of music festivals in 2024, together with Dwell Nation’s Obtain, Latitude and the Isle of Wight.

The choice follows a revolt by artists over the financial institution’s sponsorship of music festivals because of its ongoing enterprise dealings with Israel amid the continued battle in Palestine. The connection prompted artists akin to nation singer Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, generally known as CMAT, who dropped out of the Latitude Pageant over its Barclays sponsorship, and the British metalcore band Ithaca, who withdrew from Obtain for a similar cause.

“I can’t permit my valuable work, my music, which I like a lot, to get into mattress with violence,” stated CMAT in an announcement supplied to the BBC.

Moreover, greater than 100 artists boycotted the Nice Escape Pageant, which happened final month as a result of competition’s sponsorship settlement with Barclays.

Dwell Nation confirmed the change in competition sponsorship, telling the BBC: “Following dialogue with artists, we’ve agreed with Barclays that they are going to step again from sponsorship of our festivals.”

In an announcement to the Guardian, a rep for Barclays stated: “Barclays was requested and has agreed to droop participation within the remaining Dwell Nation festivals in 2024. Barclays prospects who maintain tickets to those festivals should not affected and their tickets stay legitimate. The protesters’ agenda is to have Barclays debank defence corporations which is a sector we stay dedicated to as a vital a part of maintaining this nation and our allies protected.

“They’ve resorted to intimidating our employees, repeated vandalism of our branches, and on-line harassment. The one factor that this small group of activists will obtain is to weaken important assist for cultural occasions loved by tens of millions. It’s time that leaders throughout politics, enterprise, academia, and the humanities stand united in opposition to this.”