Several bands have cancelled their appearances at this weekend’s Download festival over Barclaycard being listed as one of the event’s official sponsors, due to Barclays providing financial services to defence companies that supply arms to Israel.
Download is the UK’s biggest rock, metal and punk-focused festival, and is due to get underway this Friday (June 14). Punk bands Speed, Scowl and Zulu are among the acts who will no longer play at the event, while Leeds-based thrash metal group Pest Control said of their decision to pull out of the festival: “We cannot sacrifice the principles held by this band and by the scene we come from and represent, just for personal gain.”
Metalcore band Ithaca shared a statement with The Guardian about their decision to cancel their appearance at Download, which read: “Once we were made aware of Barclays’ involvement in Download we knew we could no longer participate. This moment of solidarity is an opportunity for festival organisers to reflect carefully on who they take money from and see that the younger generation of bands will no longer be silent.”
The organisers of Download haven’t yet commented on the bands’ decision to pull out of the festival. The boycott follows similar action against Brighton’s The Great Escape last month, which saw more than 100 acts cancel sets at the event due to sponsorship links to Barclays.
The bank is listed as one of the main “divestment and exclusion” targets by the long-running, Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a UK-based organisation, has also called for a boycott of Barclays over its “grave complicity in Israel’s attacks on Palestinians”, alleging the bank “now holds over £2bn in shares, and provides £6.1bn in loans and underwriting” to companies that provide weapons to Israel.
Responding to the criticism in a statement, Barclays said: “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.
“Whilst we provide financial services to these companies, we are not making investments for Barclays and Barclays is not a ‘shareholder’ or ‘investor’ in that sense in relation to these companies.”
In addition to Download and The Great Escape, Barclays also sponsors UK festivals such as Latitude and Isle Of Wight.
