The Isle of Wight’s flagship festival, drawing hundreds of thousands from across the UK, sees a new kind of protest targeting its credit card sponsor.
On Friday, every bus stop poster on the Isle of Wight was taken over with images of embroidered posters that call out Barclays bank, the sponsor of the Isle of Wight Festival, for being Europe’s largest fossil fuel funder and driver of climate change.
The Rainy Day Women
The five poster designs, created by The Rainy Day Women, include the tagline ‘Stitched up by Barclays’ as a direct protest to Barclays’ sponsorship of the Isle of Wight Festival.
The group say that Barclays has been the biggest European banker of oil, gas, and coal companies since 2016, ploughing over $190 billion into companies extracting fossil fuels, and harming communities and habitats across the world.
End sponsorship ties with Barclays
The demand from the embroiderers is that the Isle of Wight Festival ends sponsorship ties with Barclays, which has been the subject of massive public pressure recently.
A banner drop was also included as a part of the protest, above one of the main pedestrian walkways from the Festival at Medina Quay.
Spreading the word
People were handing out thousands of leaflets at the site of the banners to make sure festival goers got the message that Barclays is trying to buy back a social license after facing growing pressure from customers, investors, and the public, over its policies to fund new oil and gas which are driving up emissions and causing the climate crisis.
Contradiction
The Isle of Wight Festival has previously issued press releases regarding sustainability, there’s a section on their Website dedicated to it.
However, as the Rainy Day Women have pointed out, the Festival can never be sustainable whilst its sponsor continues to fund oil and gas companies.
Hutchinson: IW Festival needs to stop taking Barclays’ oily money
Julie Hutchison said,
“People go to the Festival to enjoy the music and sense of community. But the actions of the Festival’s main sponsor – Barclays – are actively undoing all that joy and community through its funding activities.
“We’re telling people that they’ve been stitched up by Barclays. Isle of Wight Festival needs to stop taking Barclays’ oily money.”
The original embroideries are being exhibited at Peer Studios in Ventnor until Saturday 1st July 2023.
News shared by the Rainy Day Women, in their own words. Ed
