“I will not allow my precious work, my music, which i love so much, to get into bed with violence.”
CMAT is the latest artist to cancel a performance at Latitude Festival this summer due to the festival’s sponsorship ties with Barclay’s Bank, who have ties with the genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza.
After over a quarter of The Great Escape festival cancelled their appearances for the same reason and the same sponsor, CMAT has followed suit and posted a well-written note on why she has cancelled her appearance at Latitude.
Pillow Queens also cancelled their appearance at Latitude last week, saying “as a band we believe that artistic spaces should be able to exist without being funded by morally corrupt investors.”
Unlike The Great Escape, which pays a nominal €150 or so per band to perform the showcase festival, Latitude is a commercial festival and as such the artists playing were set to make bigger fees and therefore are denying themselves a pay day in order to boycott and show solidarity and support for the Palestinian people, through the BDS movement.
What I like about CMAT’s statement is that she’s clearly done her own research and thinking on the subject before deciding on the course of action.
Hi everyone,
I am very sorry to announce that i am officially pulling out of playing the main stage of Latitude festival 2024.
You may or may not be aware, but Latitude’s main sponsor is Barclay’s bank, who have been revealed to have increased their financing of various companies who are
supplying weapons and military technology to Israel. Specifically, it has invested over £100 Million into General Dynamics which provides gun systems to the fighter jets which are being used by Israel to bombard Gaza.I want to say how utterly devastated i am that it has come to this. I love Latitude festival, they gave me one of my first big festival slots back in 2021, and playing the sunrise arena is one of my most cherished memories ever. (The image used here is me on my way to the stage. i was so excited!) It was the first time i’d met so many people who believed in me and i had been looking forward to the full circle moment this slot would have given me, the band, and my fans. I really hope to play this festival again in the future under different circumstances, and under a different sponsor.
I also want to say i am so so sorry to be letting down anyone who was coming to see us at Latitude. I really hope i can make it up to you somehow, and i hope you can understand my choice to not play. I toyed with the idea of playing and donating our fee, but it honestly just isnt what the BDS movement is asking me to do, and i could never claim to know more than them.
I made Latitude aware of what my decision would be weeks ago, but was hoping that with all of the press surrounding the brave artists who pulled out of The Great Escape festival for the same reasons, that Latitude would divest from Barclay’s or find another sponsor. This has not happened and it has been made clear to me that it will not happen. As such I am now officially pulling out. I will not allow my precious work, my music, which i love so much, to get into bed with violence. Myself, and the entire CMAT touring crew who i love so much, refuse to be complicit in genocide.
Let me be clear. There is a genocide happening in Palestine right now. All i can do as a citizen is turn up to as many demonstrations as possible and try to follow
the advice of the BDS boycott list as closely as i possibly can. This falls under that action. I hope that as many of you reading this as possible will choose to show your solidarity with the Palestinian people in whatever way you can.Boycott Barclays.
Free Palestine.
Lots of love,
CMAT x x x
Barclay’s is also a major sponsor at some UK festival Isle Of Wight in June.
