UK festival cuts ties with Barclays over ties to Israel’s war on Gaza

More than 130 artists cancelled their performances at this year’s The Great Escape, one of the UK’s best music festivals when it comes to showcasing upcoming new talent.

They did so to protest the Brighton festival’s ties with Barclays bank, who are accused of investing in several companies that supply arms to Israel.  

Following the boycott in solidarity with the people of Palestine during the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict, it has been announced that Barclays will no longer be a partner of The Great Escape.  

The news that the bank will no longer sponsor the festival was shared by the campaign group Bands Boycott Barclays on social media, who wrote: “CONFIRMED: Barclays is not a partner of The Great Escape 2025! BOYCOTTS WORK!” 

“After hundreds of artists and music industry professionals took collective action in solidarity with Palestine this year, Barclays are no longer in any way affiliated with The Great Escape Festival!”

The BDS movement stated that they use “strategic, targeted boycotts to disrupt the flow of financial support to the Israeli military” and in their post, the group said that this news “is yet more evidence of how this strategy works.”

“Artists who are offered bookings for TGE 2025 can accept them in the knowledge that their music will not be used as a smokescreen for a company bankrolling genocide.”

A similar boycott took place at Latitude, Download and Isle of Wight festivals this year, when it emerged that they were also sponsored by Barclays, and more than 1,200 artists including Massive Attack and IDLES also signed an open letter addressed to The Great Escape, asking them to remove Barclays as a sponsor.

While the boycotts and protests worked, Bands Boycott Barclays added: “HOWEVER: The status of Barclays’ partnership with other festivals is unclear. A year into the genocide, as the IDF now extends its barbaric violence into Lebanon, all artists must redouble our collective commitment to making sure the music industry isn’t sanitising the reputation of a bank that is STILL funding weapons companies supplying the IDF. Booking for next year’s festival season is very much underway, so we are launching a Bands Boycott Barclays PLEDGE for artists and industry professionals to take.” 

The statement continued: “The pledge is a commitment to ask, at the point of booking, whether the festival you are being booked for has any affiliation to Barclays. If so, it is your duty to decline.” 

“Our collective action successfully forced Barclays out of the festival circuit in 2024. With more coordinated action, we can force this genocidal bank, which is funding weapons companies supplying the IDF, out of the music industry entirely — in doing so, we can put even more pressure on them to divest from genocide.” 

Barclays has played down its links to Israel. Earlier this year, they released a statement: “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.”