Pillow Queens grow to be first band to boycott Latitude 2024 over sponsor Barclays ties to Israel
Pillow Queens have grow to be the primary band to boycott this 12 months’s version of Latitude competition over its sponsorship with Barclays and their ties to Israel.
The Irish indie rock band – comprised of Pamela Connolly, Sarah Corcoran, Rachel Lyons and Cathy McGuinness – took to their social media to share a press release explaining why they’ve pulled out of the Suffolk music competition.
“Final week it got here to our consideration that Latitude – a competition we have been booked to play within the UK in July – lists its headline companion as Barclays. A Might 2024 report by Palestine Solidarity Marketing campaign (PSC) particulars Barclays monetary ties to corporations producing weapons and army expertise utilized in Israel’s assaults on Palestinians,” started their assertion.
“It reveals that Barclays has elevated its monetary ties with corporations arming Israel,” it continued. “PSC urges folks to boycott all Barclays companies till the financial institution ends its complicity in Israel’s assaults on Palestinians.
“As a band we consider that inventive areas ought to be capable of exist with out being funded by morally corrupt buyers. It’s for that motive that we have now pulled out of Latitude Pageant. Saoirse don Phalaistín.”
Pillow Queens’ announcement comes shortly after a serious boycott of The Nice Escape in Brighton earlier this month as a consequence of its ties with Barclays as effectively. Over 100 acts dropped out of this 12 months’s Nice Escape Pageant in solidarity with Palestine – constituting roughly 1 / 4 of the total programme.
Chatting with NME about their resolution to drag out of The Nice Escape, Large Scary Monsters founder Kevin Douch mentioned: “Truthfully, for us it was a simple resolution. We spoke to our bands and defined our place, requested them what they wished to do and it was unanimous that we’d all pull out. It’s been superior seeing so many individuals getting behind this. There are sufficient voices now to make Livenation pay attention and hopefully take away Barclays as a sponsor.”
NME has reached out to Barclays for a remark about Latitude, however when beforehand approached about The Nice Escape, a Barclays spokesperson pointed to their online Q&A forward of their upcoming AGM and mentioned that they’d not be making additional remark.
“Barclays has been the topic of criticism in relation to Gaza primarily based on two arguments: that Barclays is an investor in these companies, and that we offer a variety of economic companies to purchasers which produce tools utilized by the Israeli Defence Power,” the Q&A learn.
“We have now been requested why we spend money on 9 defence corporations supplying Israel, however this errors what we do. We commerce in shares of listed corporations in response to consumer instruction or demand and that will end in us holding shares. We don’t make investments for Barclays and Barclays just isn’t a ‘shareholder’ or ‘investor’ in that sense in relation to those corporations.”
Barclays continued: “An related declare is that we spend money on Elbit, an Israeli defence producer which additionally provides the UK armed forces with tools and coaching. For the explanations talked about, it’s not true that we have now decided to spend money on Elbit. We could maintain shares in relation to consumer pushed transactions, which is why we seem on the share register, however we’re not buyers. We word additionally that Elbit is highlighted as a result of campaigners declare it makes cluster bombs. We might stop any relationship with any enterprise the place we noticed proof that it manufactures cluster bombs or elements.
“As a financial institution, our job is to supply monetary companies to 1000’s of enterprise purchasers and that features these within the defence sector. Purchasers on this sector embody US, UK or European corporations which provide defence merchandise to NATO and different allies together with Ukraine.”
NME has reached out to Latitude for a remark.
In a transfer much like the Nice Escape walkout, many artists refused to play at SXSW Pageant in Austin, Texas in March due to the occasion’s connections to the US Military and weapons corporations amid the Israel-Gaza battle. These included Gruff Rhys, Kneecap, Sprints, Lambrini Ladies, Gel, Rachel Chinouriri, Cardinals and NewDad.
SXSW responded to the cancellations in a press release: “We’re an organisation that welcomes various viewpoints. Music is the soul of SXSW, and it has lengthy been our legacy. We totally respect the choice these artists made to train their proper to free speech.”
Explaining its sponsorship with the US Military, SXSW wrote: “The defence business has traditionally been a proving floor for most of the programs we depend on at present. These establishments are sometimes leaders in rising applied sciences, and we consider it’s higher to know how their strategy will impression our lives.”
In different Pillow Queens information, the band are set to carry out at this 12 months’s version of Glastonbury competition.