Barclays has suspended its sponsorship of all Live Nation’s festivals for 2024 after artists and fans boycotted the bank for providing financial services to companies supplying Israel.
Over the past week, several bands called-off festival appearances in support of Palestine. Artists including Scowl, Speed, ZULU, and Pest Control dropped-out of Download Festival, while CMAT, Georgia Ruth, Pillow Queens, THUMPER, Mui Zyu, and Blue Lab Beats removed themselves from the Latitude Festival lineup. More than 100 acts dropped-off The Great Escape lineup last month.
An active campaign, Bands Boycott Barclays, began to garner attention online, urging artists to speak out and show their solidarity with Palestine.
Following the boycotts, Barclays suspended its sponsorship for all festivals, including Download, Latitude, Camp Bestival, and the Isle of Wright. The bank had signed a five-year sponsorship deal with Live Nation in 2023; this suspension does not apply to the entire contract.
A spokesperson for Live Nation followed suit, noting that “following discussions with artists, we have agreed with Barclays that they will step back from sponsorship of our festivals.”
A spokesperson for Barclays told The Guardian that the company “was asked has agreed to suspend participation in the remaining Live Nation festivals in 2024,” noting that Barclays customers’ tickets to these festivals will still remain valid.
“The protestors’ agenda is to have Barclays de-bank defense companies which is a sector we remain committed to as an essential part of keeping this country and our allies safe,” the spokesperson said. “They have resorted to intimidating our staff, repeated vandalism of our branches and online harassment. The only thing that this small group of activists will achieve is to weaken essential support for cultural events enjoyed by millions. It is time that leaders across politics, business, academia, and the arts stand united against this.”
In response to the suspension, Bands Boycott Barclays said that this marks “a victory for the Palestinian-led global BDS movement.”
“As musicians, we were horrified that our music festivals were partnered with Barclays, who are complicit in the genocide in Gaza through investment, loans, and underwriting of companies supplying the Israeli military,” the group said. “Hundreds of artists have taken action this summer to make it clear that this is morally reprehensible, and we are glad we have been heard.”
The group went on to note that their demand to Barclays “is simple: divest from the genocide, or face further boycotts.”
While the UK-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign has called for a general boycott against the bank, alleging the company holds over £2 billion is shares and provides £6.1 billion in loans and underwriting to companies providing weapons systems to Israel, Barclays denies funding arms companies and says it is not a shareholder or investor in relation to those companies.
