Mui Zyu and Georgia Ruth are the latest musicians to pull out of this year’s edition of Latitude festival over its sponsorship with Barclays and the bank’s ties to Israel.
Zyu shared a statement on her official Instagram account explaining her decision to boycott the Suffolk Music Festival. “The festival is sponsored by Barclays who are continuing to profit from the genocide in Palestine,” began her statement.
She continued: “Barclays are on the BDS Movement’s boycott list. Throughout the last six months they have continued to increase their financing to companies making weapons that are then used on Gaza where at this moment over 37,000 people have been killed and over 82,000 people injured (many of whom are children).
“As a small artist this may not have much impact on the festival, but if others join it can. If you are planning to attend the festival please consider using your voice as a customer to speak out against your money going towards a genocide.”
Her statement concluded with “Follow Bands Boycott Barclays who are leading this movement. Familiarise yourself with the BDS Movement, and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.”
Ruth also took to her official Instagram account to share her own statement explaining her decision to boycott Latitude and highlight the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s (PSC) latest report which revealed that Barclays “now invests over £2 billion in, and provides loans and
underwriting worth £6.1 billion, to nine companies whose weapons, components and military technology are used in Israel’s attacks on Palestinians”.
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“I was inspired by the effective boycott of Hay Festival this week by participating authors, which led directly to Baillie Gifford being dropped as main sponsor,” she wrote. “We can make a difference; festivals can make meaningful change. I urge Latitude to cut financial ties with Barclaycard.”
Zyu and Ruth are the latest to pull out of the fest, joining CMAT who announced last week that she was no longer performing at the bash and Pillow Queens who became the first band to boycott this year’s edition of Latitude festival over its sponsorship with the bank and their ties to Israel.
According to the Latitude Festival partnership website, Barclaycard’s description reads: “Official Headline Partner of Latitude Festival. Barclaycard are excited to return to this year’s festival season as official naming partner for Latitude Festival 2024!
“Barclaycard is your pass to perks for music-loving Barclaycard and Barclays Premier cardholders with early access to tickets and discounts on food and drink at selected vendors.”
Other sponsors include TK Maxx, Three, Co-Op, Bacardi, Grey Goose, Bombay Sapphire, Pepsi Max, Big Green Coach, Aperol Spritz, and Tia Maria.
The announcement of Zyu and Ruth pulling out of Latitude comes shortly after the major boycott of The Great Escape in Brighton last month, also due to its ties with Barclays. Over 100 acts dropped out of this year’s Great Escape Festival in solidarity with Palestine – constituting approximately a quarter of the full programme.
Speaking to NME about their decision to pull out of The Great Escape, Big Scary Monsters founder Kevin Douch said: “Honestly, for us it was an easy decision. We spoke to our bands and explained our position, asked them what they wanted to do and it was unanimous that we’d all pull out. It’s been awesome seeing so many people getting behind this. There are enough voices now to make Live Nation listen and hopefully remove Barclays as a sponsor.”
A Barclays spokesperson shared a statement that read: “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. The defence sector is fundamental to our national security and the UK government has been clear that supporting defence companies is compatible with ESG considerations. Decisions on the implementation of arms embargos to other nations are the job of respective elected governments.”
When previously approached about The Great Escape, a Barclays spokesperson pointed to their online Q&A ahead of their upcoming AGM and said that they would not be making further comment.
“Barclays has been the subject of criticism in relation to Gaza based on two arguments: that Barclays is an investor in these businesses, and that we provide a range of financial services to clients which produce equipment used by the Israeli Defence Force,” the Q&A read.
“We have been asked why we invest in nine defence companies supplying Israel, but this mistakes what we do. We trade in shares of listed companies in response to client instruction or demand and that may result in us holding shares. We are not making investments for Barclays and Barclays is not a ‘shareholder’ or ‘investor’ in that sense in relation to these companies.”
Barclays continued: “An associated claim is that we invest in Elbit, an Israeli defence manufacturer which also supplies the UK armed forces with equipment and training. For the reasons mentioned, it is not true that we have made a decision to invest in Elbit. We may hold shares in relation to client driven transactions, which is why we appear on the share register, but we are not investors. We note also that Elbit is highlighted because campaigners claim it makes cluster bombs. We would cease any relationship with any business where we saw evidence that it manufactures cluster bombs or components.
“As a bank, our job is to provide financial services to thousands of business clients and that includes those in the defence sector. Clients in this sector include US, UK or European companies which supply defence products to NATO and other allies including Ukraine.”
NME has reached out to Latitude for a comment.
In a move similar to the Great Escape walkout, many artists refused to play at SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas in March because of the event’s connections to the US Army and weapons companies amid the Israel-Gaza conflict. These included Gruff Rhys, Kneecap, Sprints, Lambrini Girls, Gel, Rachel Chinouriri, Cardinals and NewDad.
SXSW responded to the cancellations in a statement: “We are an organisation that welcomes diverse viewpoints. Music is the soul of SXSW, and it has long been our legacy. We fully respect the decision these artists made to exercise their right to free speech.”
Explaining its sponsorship with the US Army, SXSW wrote: “The defence industry has historically been a proving ground for many of the systems we rely on today. These institutions are often leaders in emerging technologies, and we believe it’s better to understand how their approach will impact our lives.”