The campaign against the festival’s sponsor, Barclays Bank, has received support from such bands as Massive Attack, Brian Eno and Idles.
The reason why over 100 acts are pulling out from performing at the popular UK festival is that Barclays has substantial financial ties to arms companies that provide Israel with weapons.
According to The Guardian, a spokesperson for Bands Boycott Barclays said “Barclays is bankrolling the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and then laundering its reputation by partnering with music festivals like the Great Escape. As musicians, we think that’s despicable.”
Other artists, such as Tom Yhorke and Nick Cave have defended their stance on performing in Israel and not participating in ‘open letters’ and boycotts as they are a way of silencing artists.
Whether you are participating in the Great Escape or not, if you are a musician or if you represent an organisation within the music industry and you’d like to add your name to an open letter calling for the festival to drop Barclays as a sponsor – then you can do so here.