LONDON: The head of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society has defended its sponsorship deal with Baillie Gifford despite growing criticism of the investment management firm’s funding links to Israel.
Speaking ahead of the program launch on Wednesday morning, Shona McCarthy, CEO of the charity that organizes the annual arts festival in the Scottish capital, said the board had had “a serious and detailed discussion about all of this” before reaching its decision.
Arts festivals were operating in a “fevered environment” in which “everybody has to make their own decisions with the information that they have at hand,” she said.
“We’re expected to be all things to all people, be the most values-driven organizations on the planet, alert to everything that’s going on in our geopolitical environment and to keep our teams in jobs, keep solvent and deal with deficits and loans from COVID that we’re all still carrying.”
McCarthy’s comments came after Baillie Gifford was dropped as a sponsor by other cultural events in the UK.
A campaign led by the Fossil Free Books group has called for divestment from the fossil fuel industry and an end to the funding of companies associated with Israel.
“Solidarity with Palestine and climate justice are inextricably linked,” it said.
The Edinburgh International Book Festival and Hay Festival are among those to have severed ties with Baillie Gifford, though others have said the company’s investment links to fossil fuels and Israel are limited and conducted primarily through third-party entities.
Speaking about the decision by literary festivals to sever ties with Baillie Gifford, Fossil Free Books organizer Omar Robert Hamilton said: “I wouldn’t call it a victory.
“It was that relationship that we were trying to get them to leverage in order to talk to them about divesting.”
The cultural boycott related to the Gaza conflict has gained momentum in Europe and the US, sparking heated debates due to the financial vulnerabilities of cultural organizations.
In a related development, several bands have withdrawn from the Download music festival over Barclaycard’s sponsorship of the event. Barclays provides financial services to defense companies that supply Israel.
