Swan Lake just faced protests over a theatre’s ties to planet-wrecking Barclays

Campaigners from Fossil Free London disrupted the opening night of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, demanding the venue sever ties with Barclays over the bank’s funding of fossil fuels and arms.

Swan Lake

During the Swan Lake interval, protesters staged a dramatic lobby demonstration, pouring oil on two campaigners dressed in Swan Lake costumes while others chanted, “Sadler’s Wells, drop Barclays”. Their banner read, “Cut Ties with Barclays”:

Security escorted them out of the building.

The disruption followed an earlier protest outside the theatre, where 10 campaigners in Swan Lake costumes staged a “die-in” next to a banner that read, “Barclays Funds Bombs and Big Oil”. Leaflets explaining the protest were handed out to theatre goers:

Sadler’s Wells has a close relationship with Barclays, which is one of the theatre’s main sponsors. Additionally, Nigel Higgins, the chair of the Sadler’s Wells Board of Trustees, also serves as the chairman of Barclays. So, protesters made the Swan Lake audience aware:

Barclays: wrecking the planet

By February 2024, Barclays had £2bn in shares in eight of the nine companies providing military equipment to Israel.

This included £2.7m in Elbit Systems. Elbit provides 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet and land-based equipment. Alongside this, it supplies bombs, missiles, and other weaponry. It markets these as “battle-tested” after bombardments in occupied Palestine.

Barclays has provided over £6.1bn in loans and underwriting to the arms and military technology companies Israel has violently deployed against Palestinians. These include arms firms like BAE Systems, Boeing, and Raytheon.

Meanwhile, Barclays is also making a killing bankrolling the climate crisis. Between 2016 and the end of 2023, Barclays has poured US $235.2bn into fossil fuels. This is according to the latest ‘Banking on Climate Chaos’ report, which placed Barclays among its ‘Dirty Dozen’ – the top twelve worst banks for financing the polluting sector.

Moreover, it has invested over US $190bn in fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement. Whilst Barclays committed to stop financing new oil & gas expansion ‘projects’ in a renewed energy policy in February, this restricts just 10% of their fossil fuel funding.

Swan Lake is dancing around the issue

Joanna Warrington, campaigner with Fossil Free London, said of the Swan Lake protest:

It’s time for Sadler’s Wells to stop dancing around the issue.

By continuing to partner with Barclays, a bank that fuels climate breakdown and genocide, Sadler’s Wells is complicit in global suffering and the destruction of our future. This sponsorship lets Barclays hide behind a veil of corporate responsibility, while it continues business as usual, bankrolling the industries driving environmental devastation and violence across the world.

Art holds immense power to inspire change and shape our world for the better, but it’s meaningless if we don’t act to protect the future it imagines. Sadler’s Wells must choose: uphold the values of art and humanity, or remain complicit in the destruction and greed that threatens us all.

Featured image and additional images via Talia Woodin