Adelaide writers’ week was sacrificed to save the 2026 Adelaide festival, an event that ploughs more than $60m into South Australia’s economy each year, documents show.
After the 8 January announcement by the Adelaide festival board that controversial Palestinian Australian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah had been dumped from the AWW program, it wasn’t just fellow Australian and international guest writers and academics who began pulling out in droves.
Headline acts for Australia’s longest running and most prestigious international arts festival were also threatening to walk, according to freedom of information documents obtained by Guardian Australia.
Internal briefings prepared for an extraordinary board meeting held on 12 January – two days after three board members had resigned in protest and the day after the chair, Tracey Whiting, had stood down – warned of a “cascade of withdrawals” that could see the entire 2026 Adelaide festival collapse. AWW is overseen by the Adelaide festival board.
The internal briefings reveal major Australian theatre and dance companies programmed for the festival wrote to its artistic director, Matthew Lutton, warning they were “considering their positions” after the AWW boycotts began. The companies’ identities were redacted in the documents.
And while the local exodus was already in motion, management warned it was bracing for a second – and global – wave of cancellations, as the allegations of censorship and government interference reached international acts.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailIf an announcement was made within the next 18 hours stating the 2026 AWW had been cancelled, the briefing said, “it may prevent artists from withdrawing from the 2026 Adelaide festival program and will avoid a cascade of withdrawals in the coming days, thereby mitigating reputational and financial damage”.
Any delays in announcing the cancellation of the AWW would “significantly increase the risk that the reputational damage from Adelaide Writers’ Week is transferred to Adelaide Festival”.
Moreover, the briefing said future Adelaide festivals could also be at risk.
“Currently, when invitations are extended to national and international artists, they accept without hesitation, as they do not consider the possibility that their values may not align with those of Adelaide Festival,” the briefing said.
“However, if artists were to withdraw from Adelaide Festival, expressing concerns about its values, this could create significant friction in future years. Such withdrawals might lead artists to hesitate before accepting invitations and to reconsider their willingness to associate with Adelaide Festival.”
Palestinian Australian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah. Photograph: Flavio Brancaleone/EPAAt the extraordinary board meeting, AWW director, Louise Adler, told the three remaining board members, Lutton and Adelaide festival’s chief executive, Julian Hobba, that out of 165 AWW sessions, only 12 remained intact.
She urged the board to issue a full public apology to Abdel-Fattah and cancel the 2026 event – which was by this point unsalvageable – and concentrate on rebuilding for a 2027 return.
Hence then, the article about adelaide writers week sacrificed to save city s prestigious arts festival documents show was published today ( ) and is available on NY Times News ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Adelaide writers’ week sacrificed to save city’s prestigious arts festival, documents show )
Also on site :
- 1999 Box Office Flop Ranked Among ‘Best Movies of All Time’
- 1958 Crime Thriller, Known as Film Saved by History, Ranked Among ‘Best Movies of All Time’
- Carrie Underwood Fans Do a Double Take at Her New Look Ahead of Taylor Swift Night on 'American Idol'