Barclays has suspended its sponsorship of all UK-based Live Nation festivals for 2024 following protests against the bank’s ties to Israel.
Protest group Bands Boycott Barclays, which has encouraged artists to pull out of festivals such as The Great Escape and Download already this year due to Barclays’ involvement, described the development as a “historic victory” for the long-running Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Barclays signed a five-year sponsorship deal of UK Live Nation festivals in 2023, and it’s believed that contract has only been suspended rather than entirely cancelled for now.
Latitude, Isle Of Wight Festival, Bestival and Reading & Leeds are among the festivals yet to take place this year, which will now no longer be sponsored by Barclays.
The bank is listed as one of the main “divestment and exclusion” targets by the Palestinian-led 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 shared previously, 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.”
