Artists & promoters sign open letter urging Vivid to drop Airbnb amid growing calls for boycott

The reaction to Vivid Sydney’s partnership with online homestay marketplace Airbnb is gaining momentum as more artists and promoters pull out of this year’s event, sign an open letter directed at Vivid, and a protest at the event itself is organised by local activist groups.

Mirroring much of the global pressure being applied to festivals like Sonár, Field Day (London), and Boiler Room, local pressure has seen artists, promoters, and activists alike call for Vivid to remove Airbnb as its Community Partner.

Today, the Stop War On Palestine action group shared that 18 artists and promoters on the Vivid lineup have signed an open letter calling for Vivid to drop Airbnb as a partner. This includes Sisonke Msimang, Yasmina Sadiki, Rydeen, Soju Gang, Kaiit, Station Model Violence, G2g, DUNJ, Moktar, BAYANG (Tha Bushranger), Tangela & Hunny, among others.

Of this group, those who have totally withdrawn from Vivid include: Sisonke Msimang (writer), Rydeen (DJ & producer), Sevy (musician), BAYANG (Tha Bushranger) (musician), Hazeen (band), Hunny (band) and Steel City Dance Discs (label & promoter).

Recently, similar open letters were signed by artists calling for Barcelona-based festival Sónar and London’s Field Day to distance themselves from owner KKR’s “complicit investments”.

Yesterday afternoon, BAYANG (Tha Bushranger) posted a statement on his social media calling for more artists, promoters, and punters to take action and boycott Airbnb. In it, he stated that “regardless of whether we personally are taking money from Airbnb or not, it is crucial that we draw a line when it comes to normalising relations for these companies and art-washing their profit off of genocide. Do NOT let yourself do the PR work for these people.”

Read: Artists pull out of Vivid Sydney over partnership with boycott target Airbnb

Other events and artists not included in this open letter have also taken action, including the Mulubinba/Newcastle-born label Steel City Dance Discs’ event at Oxford Art Factory, which is no longer affiliated with Vivid.

At the time of writing, over 1,100 signatures have also been added to an online petition calling for the same, likening Airbnb’s involvement to Vivid “lighting up the Opera House with apartheid”.

Within the petition and the open letter, the organisers, Stop The War On Palestine, quoted Amnesty International in claiming that “any company doing business in Israel’s illegal settlements is enabling a war crime and helping to prop up Israel’s system of apartheid… War crimes are not a tourist attraction – Airbnb, Booking.com and the wider business community should immediately sever all links with Israel’s illegal occupation and ongoing annexation of Palestinian territory.”

The momentum behind this growing boycott and conversation has resulted in a protest being organised at Queen’s Square on Gadigal Land/Sydney this Friday, May 30, at 6PM, right as the lights at Vivid turn on for the weekend.

At a rally outside of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s local office in Marrickville on the afternoon of Sunday, May 25, a spokesperson for the activist group said in a speech to a crowd of protesters:

“Airbnb is a company currently sitting on a blacklist, cooperating in illegal Israeli settlements. Next Friday we will be marching on that festival [Vivid], sending a message that we will not allow artwashing of apartheid and genocide in this city.”

In a statement shared in 2018, Airbnb claimed that it “does not support the BDS movement, any boycott of Israel, or any boycott of Israeli companies.” After announcing in this same statement that it would remove listings for 200 rental properties in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, the following year, it reversed this decision following a number of lawsuits but claimed it would “take no profits from this activity in the region.”

In April, a spokesperson for the NSW Government, which manages and owns Vivid through Destination NSW, said to Mixmag ANZ that:

“We understand the depth of feeling in the community about events in the Middle East. The NSW Government is focused on maintaining community harmony here in our state. However, we do not support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that is aimed at targeting businesses based on their race and religion. NSW is a strong, welcoming and connected society in which different views, faiths, backgrounds and cultures are respected and we will do everything we can to protect that.”

The current climate, where large, multinational brands are becoming increasingly active in grassroots dance music scenes, is contributing to a growing discontent towards brands involved in events like Vivid. Last year, SXSW dropped a series of U.S. Army and weapons manufacturers as sponsors after pro-Palestinian protests.

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Jack Colquhoun is Mixmag ANZ's Managing Editor, find him on Instagram.