Musicians Boycott Adelaide Festival in Pro-Palestine Stand as Festival Plunges Into Crisis

EDIT: This article has been updated as of 3:30PM AEST to reflect an update on the Adelaide Festival, which has cancelled its 2026 event.

Backlash against the Adelaide Festival board’s decision to remove Palestinian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from Adelaide Writers’ Week’s lineup has extended far beyond the festival’s literary offering, with a wide range of musicians now withdrawing from the festival’s musical bill.

Tryp, the festival’s new contemporary music component, has seen every artist pull out of the second instalment in its more club-concentrated offering, joining 180 writers, commentators and academics, including former Aotearoa/New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern.

The decision by the board to remove Dr Abdel-Fattah, described by Macquarie University as “one of Australia’s most prominent Palestine advocates”, came from an apparent sensitivity to her pro-Palestinian stance in the wake of December’s Bondi Beach mass shooting. "Whilst we do not suggest in any way that Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah's or her writings have any connection with the tragedy at Bondi, given her past statements we have formed the view that it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi,” the board shared late last week.

Following the announcement, Abdel-Fattah said she “cannot believe” that she had to publicly announce that she “had nothing to do with the Bondi atrocities”.

Immediately following the announcement, the Jewish Community Council of South Australia’s Norman Scheuler shared on ABC Radio Adelaide that he had personally advised the board that he “did not think it [Abdel-Fattah's appearance] was wise, post a race-based terror attack that has never really happened before in the history of our country.”

Late last week, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas shared that while he has “made it clear at every juncture that I would not seek to direct the board,” “when asked for my opinion I was happy to make it clear that the state government did not support the inclusion of Dr Abdel-Fattah on the Adelaide Writers’ week program.”

Malinauskas has publicly shared that concerns about Abdel-Fattah’s inclusion in the Writers’ Week Program extend as far back as September, before the Bondi mass shooting was even a factor.

The response to the board’s decision has seen dozens of figures withdraw from the festival’s programming, including former Aotearoa PM Jacinda Ardern, bestselling author Zadie Smith, Pulitzer prize-winning writer Percival Everett and one of Australia’s revered writers, Helen Garner. Adelaide Writers’ Week’s program has been taken down in its entirety from the Adelaide Festival website.

On Monday, three board members and the chair resigned amid the situation, with the Guardian calling it an “unprecedented leadership crisis.” They include journalist Daniel Ritorto, Adelaide businesswoman Donny Walford, lawyer Nick Linke, and board chair Tracey Whiting.

The growing call to boycott the festival beyond Writer’s Week has now extended into its musical programming. Over the weekend, Kaurna-based collectives H34VEN0N34RTH and ADELAIDE BALLROOM announced via their social channels that they will no longer be a part of Adelaide Festival’s Tryp II event.

“The board has continued to conflate anti-Zionism with anti-semitism, and extended that to outright racism against those of Arab descent by weaponising outrage to fuel further discrimination,” they shared. Their withdrawal sees them aligning with artists both a part of their lineup and other Tryp events who they are “currently aware of their voiced positions to withdraw from Adelaide Festival”, including Brooklyn-based DJ Haram, Jannah Quill, House of Vnholy, Romi, Skorpion King, Mr John and SOVBLKPSSY.

Yesterday, Gadigal Land/Sydney-based DJ and producer SOVBLKPSSY shared via her social channels that “the straight-up xenophobic, racist and Islamophobic decision made from Adelaide Festival board leaves me no choice but to boycott. As a Ngarrindjeri artist, this type of behaviour does not align with me, and I no longer wish to continue my involvement with the festival.”

Naarm/Melbourne-based Jannah Quill & Kaurna-based House of Vnholy shared in a public statement that “we were honoured and grateful to be included in the Tryp programming – it was a special opportunity that allowed us to present new work at a scale that matched our ambition. But no opportunity is worth aligning with such racist ideology.”

As reported by InDaily, these boycotts threaten to derail both the Adelaide Festival and its economic impact on the city. Its 2025 Impact Report shows that it generated $62.6 million in gross expenditure for South Australia, spent by the 365,402 total attendees, and was a “significant contributor to South Australia’s visitor economy”, according to the report.

When asked if he was concerned about the economic damage that this controversy would have on the state, Premier Malinauskas said “yes”.

Mixmag ANZ posed a series of questions to Adelaide Festival about the growing boycott and calls to reinstate Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah to its program. Those questions were:

• In light of the widespread withdrawals of writers following the disinvitation of Randa Abdel-Fattah, how does Adelaide Festival respond to musicians who are now calling for a boycott on similar grounds of free expression and cultural safety?
• Two artists who have shared their intent to no longer play the festival include DJ Haram and SOVBLKPSSY, Syrian/Circassian and Ngarrindjeri women respectively. How has the rationale behind the board’s decision to remove Randa Abdel-Fattah been communicated to musicians whose political expression and aspects of their identity may be subject to selective constraint?
• Do you feel that it’s possible for the festival to proceed meaningfully if the boycott continues to expand?
• Are there plans to apologise to Randa Abdel-Fattah and re-invite her to the festival, particularly in the wake of this boycott & members of the board choosing to resign?

In response, a representative from Adelaide Festival shared a statement to be attributed to Julian Hobba, the Adelaide Festival Corporation’s Executive Director:

“Following the Adelaide Festival Board’s decision on Thursday 8 January and the significant community response, Adelaide Writers’ Week and Adelaide Festival are navigating a complex and unprecedented moment and will share further updates as soon as we are able,” it read.

As of this morning, Adelaide Writers’ Week’s director, Louise Adler, has now resigned. In an open letter published by The Guardian, Adler shared that the decision by the board came despite her “strongest opposition”, and that the cancellation was a result of “pressure from pro-Israel lobbyists, bureaucrats and opportunistic politicians".

“Writers and writing matters, even when they are presenting ideas that discomfort and challenge us. We need writers now more than ever, as our media closes up, as our politicians grow daily more cowed by real power, as Australia grows more unjust and unequal,” Adler shared.

On Tuesday afternoon, the festival announced that the remaining members of its board will step down ("with the exception of the Adelaide City Council representative whose term expires on 2 February 2026") and its 2026 event will be cancelled. The festival also apologised to Abdel-Fattah "for how the decision was represented".

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