Why Edinburgh Festival Fringe needs to prepare for a fight with puritanical climate activists

It is 1843 and Charles Dickens is putting the finishing touches to A Christmas Carol when hark, there is a knock at the door. Outside is someone who demands to know how what the novelist plans to do about the Uruguayan Civil War, which has been raging for months.

Dickens explains he doesn’t think his actions can or will make any difference. But the caller at the door is adamant, unless he takes action and changes the book to be a treatise against the war in Uruguay, he will be blacklisted and will never write again. Thankfully Ye Olde Fossil Free Books didn’t exist back then so we have the Dickens classic but the Puritans are back to haunt us.

The sponsorship deal between Edinburgh International Book Festival and Baillie Gifford ended this month following pressure from campaigners who want the finance firm “to divest from the fossil fuel industry and all companies involved in Israeli occupation, apartheid and genocide”. Festival organisers acted because they believed they could not deliver a safe and sustainable event with the constant threat of disruption from activists.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe may be the next target of climate activists (Picture: Jane Barlow/PA)

Furious authors

The move was designed to force Baillie Gifford into a dialogue but surprise, surprise, it failed. The Edinburgh-based firm pointed out only two per cent of client money is linked to fossil fuels and much more is focused on green energy. It also declined to be bullied over how it does business and ended sponsorship deals with all literary festivals so it can concentrate on what it does best: employing people and making money.

In summary, nothing has changed except the literary festivals are now a lot poorer and probably won’t be able to continue doing things like platforming authors who want to save the planet and mounting events aimed at getting children reading.

Writers criticise 'perverse' protest over book festival as Baillie Gifford sponsorship ends

Last weekend I was at the brilliant Borders Book Festival in Melrose which has also been forced to end ties with Baillie Gifford. The authors I spoke to were furious about the damage being done at a time when arts sponsorship is already precarious. However most were reluctant to speak out for fear of falling foul of the “non-hierarchical collective” behind the protests.

Who is pure enough?

It would be different if Fossil Free Books had a solution to the funding problem they have created. Instead they mumble about more state support for the arts and literature. At a time when public finances are already stretched and the main election conversation is about service cuts or tax rises, that is next-level fantasy fiction.

So pity the poor sponsorship managers around the country who now need to find new sponsors for our book festivals. And not just any old backer but ones so perfect they can never be called into question. Just who is pure enough? Not Amazon, where most books are sold, which has investment from Baillie Gifford and presumably not Waterstones which is owned by a hedge fund.

Having ravaged book festivals, who do these activists go after next? Since 2022 Baillie Gifford has sponsored the Edinburgh Festival Fringe supporting 39 community organisations and providing tickets for those who can’t afford them.

The board of the Fringe has decided to stick with the deal. For the sake of the world’s biggest arts festival, let’s hope they have the guts for a fight when the going gets tough.