Leave it to a bunch of punk and metal bands to successfully disrupt music festivals with any ties to funding Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinian people. Bands Boycott Barclays, a group led by bands and fans against Barclays, which has invested and loaned billions of dollars to nine companies supplying the Israeli military, has resulted in the immediate suspension of its sponsorship of all remaining Live Nation festivals scheduled for 2024. Including several major U.K. events like Download, Latitude, and the Isle of Wight.
This feature was produced by Sandra Burciaga Olinger, and written by David Sosa
What began as a May Day appeal to boycott the Brighton-based Great Escape over its ties to the bank eventually snowballed into a multi-festival movement. Over 130 bands eventually answered that initial call to action, refusing to allow their labor or art to be made complicit with the moral atrocities and human rights violations being perpetuated by Israel. Bands Boycott Barclays, comprised of musicians and music industry professionals, even organized its own counter-festival, The Great Boycott, which was also held in Brighton.
Emboldened by the success, the boycott became an extension of the international BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement that has emerged in opposition to the Palestinian genocide. Their primary target has reportedly invested £2 billion, with an additional £6.1 billion in loans and underwriting, to companies like Boeing and Raytheon. Over the last few months, the movement has earned support from groups like the Musician’s Union and Greenpeace, as well as statements of solidarity from several big names in music like Massive Attack, Brian Eno, and Tom Morello.
“A bank funding war crimes has no place at music festivals,” Morello shared on X, responding to the news of Barclays’ withdrawal. “The fact that Download has listened to its musicians and cut ties with Barclays Bank is a testament to the power of artists taking collective action for human rights. I’ve been pushing hard for this behind the scenes for some time and I salute all the artists who have taken a stand to help make this historic withdrawal happen.”
It’s one thing for established artists and bands to take stands, leveraging their position and platform toward tangible change, but another entirely when smaller, less financially secure acts do the same. For bands like Scowl, Speed, and Pest Control, sacrificing a slot at a major music festival isn’t a lightly made or entirely inconsequential decision. But to acquiesce to such violence in exchange for a check is antithetical to the very spirit of punk — which is why they all pulled out of Download and opted to perform at a Palestine benefit instead.
“We have made the decision to pull out of our upcoming shows at Download Festival this week,” Pest Control announced on Instagram. “This is due to us taking part in the boycott against Barclays Bank, who are Download Festival’s payment partner and sponsor. Barclays Banks oversees billions of dollars in investments and loans to companies whose weapons and technology are used in Israel’s onslaught against the Palestinian people. We will not take part in an event whose sponsor profits from facilitating a genocide.”
Reactions from fans, both music lovers and festival attendees, shared a spectrum of reactions to the boycott on social media. For the most part, sentiments were impassioned and generally supportive, rallying around the revival of political activism and speaking truth to power as pillars of punk rock.
“HARDCORE IS POLITICS. HARDCORE IS ANTIFASCIST. FREE PALESTINE,” @clauditorebelalliance exclaimed in the comments beneath Speed’s post. “thank you for taking a stand and reminding people punk and alternative music is about how you LIVE your LIFE off the stage as well as how you perform on it! Legendssss,” another fan, @livwynter said.
Still, some people revealed their ignorance of punk’s roots in counterculture movements, clearly needing a refresher on bands like the MC5, who unabashedly supported civil rights during one of the most racially and politically volatile moments in American history. “If feel that strongly why not play the festival and donate your pay to Gaza,” @ddtats advised Scowl in the comments, echoing a sentiment parroted by others that blindly misses the point.
“Don’t look too hard into any production company’s background or you’ll have no shows left to play…..” @burnsy165ridesbikes chimed in, implying that being conscious of who or what someone endorses or supports is an inconvenience no one should ever bother with. “all the fascists really exposing themselves in the comments, yall were never punks to begin with if you think that what they’re doing is somehow wrong,” @honeybl00m commented in response to these critics.
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But for all the blustering of faux-punk fans and zionist sympathizers, especially those who accused these bands of performative activism and simultaneously taunted them for making a choice that was somehow consequential enough to harm their careers but not to enact change, Barclays’s stepping down proves that collective action can force the issue.
Or, as @thecrybabydiaries eloquently put it: “I hope everyone who said there was no point in bands pulling out and who said to remove politics from music sees this and I hope it inspires some of them to join and do something and take action until Palestine is free.”
Music will always be political, punk in particular, and to try and separate the two is, at best, an act of ignorance and/or privilege and, at worst, a willful acceptance of inequity and oppression.
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