Musicians on Reading and Leeds Festivals

Musicians and music workers can sign below
NOT FOR GENERAL SIGNATURES

As musicians and music workers, including many who have appeared at Reading and Leeds festivals in the past, we refuse to be silent while Israel continues its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank, and criminal aggression against the peoples of Lebanon, Iran and beyond.

Much commentary on the so-called ceasefire in Gaza has ignored that Palestinians are brutalised and dehumanised on a day-to-day basis. Just weeks ago, a UN independent commission found that Israel continues to deliberately target and kill Palestinian children in Gaza. Meanwhile, many governments and corporations have enabled its ongoing genocide.

Refusing silence in the face of oppression and impunity is our moral obligation, as artists and workers who seek to live in a more just and peaceful world. Our cultural spaces must uphold and respect fundamental human rights and dignity for everyone–including Indigenous Palestinians and all marginalised groups. Music festivals are no different.

We stand in solidarity with Palestinian artists' urgent call on festivals and venues to adopt ethical sponsorship and programming policies that resist complicity in all oppression, especially while the ascendant far-right and climate change threatens all of us.

Many of us know and love Reading and Leeds festivals, from our younger years until now. We echo a thousand artists calling on its owner Live Nation to drop Live Nation Israel, which has glorified the genocidal Israeli military and artwashes apartheid, and we invite Reading and Leeds and Festival Republic to join us in speaking out. This moment demands that we unflinchingly insist on freedom, justice and equality for all.