UK
Baillie Gifford cuts ties with Cheltenham Literature Festival after BDS threats
Asset management company Baillie Gifford has been targeted over investment in fossil fuels and links with Israel
June 5, 2024 11:41
Asset management company Baillie Gifford has been targeted over investment in fossil fuels and links with Israel
June 5, 2024 11:41Baillie Gifford has cut ties with the Cheltenham Literature Festival following mounting boycott pressure in the literary world.
Cheltenham organisers said the event was seeking a different partnership after Baillie Gifford ended the longstanding partnership – over pressure from BDS activists.
Baillie Gifford, which sponsors several literary festivals, is under scrutiny from boycott campaigns over its ties to Israel and investment in fossil fuels.
The Cheltenham festival said: “We support an end to fossil fuel usage, and an end to human rights abuses of all kinds. Every year for 80 years, we have platformed the most prominent writers and thinkers in the world, and championed progress. We will continue to do so, although like all literature festivals we operate within a straitened financial context.”
The organisers thanked Baillie Gifford for their sponsorship to date which they said had increased “access to, and representation within, the very public debates that can affect lasting change.”
Cheltenham added: "We would not have chosen to find ourselves in this position. We believe that change is only possible if we as a culture make it together.”
The activist group Fossil Free Books has been targeting the company, which manages £225 billion in assets.
The Cheltenham festival is the latest to no longer be working with the company due to pressure.
Edinburgh International Book Festival also severed its relationship with the asset management company after said writers pulled out despite not supporting the “boycotters’ cause.”
The festival said authors were scared about the negative publicity their books might get.
Director of the Edinburgh book festival Jenny Niven told The Times the cancellations were becoming a “massive financial issue.”
She said Fossil Free Books had campaigned to “take out higher-profile names” and “enormous peer pressure was beginning to build up” among authors.
She added: “We were already beginning to see people who don’t particularly align themselves with the campaign but fear that this is not good publicity for their books to be involved with this.
“Somehow it [Fossil Free Books] has managed to wrap in just about every one of these causes and many more which meant it became unsolvable.”
The Hay Festival also suspended its relationship after calls to boycott the event.
And the Borders Book Festival also announced it would no longer work with the investment firm.
The festival’s directors said they made the decision “with great regret.”
In a statement, the directors said: “We took this decision with great regret because we have enjoyed eight happy and productive years working together to make our festival better, more accessible and in particular more attractive to children and families.
“Without the support of Baillie Gifford we would not have been able to mount such a vibrant and varied children’s festival (where adults go free) and do all that we do with schools in the Borders. Baillie Gifford’s support has enabled us to put free books into the hands of thousands of children, and that aspect of their support will be sorely missed.
“We wish to put on record our thanks to the company for their solid and passionate support not only for our festival, its authors and audiences, but for all the book festivals across Britain who have benefited from Baillie Gifford’s commitment to the world of books and readers.”