Baillie Gifford Ends Sponsorship of Stratford Literary Festival After 10 Years
Investment firm Baillie Gifford has decided to end its sponsorship of the prestigious Stratford Literary Festival after 10 years of support. The festival, which featured renowned authors such as David Nicholls, Mary Beard, and Patrick Grant, took place last month in Shakespeare’s hometown.
Festival organizers expressed their sadness at the firm’s decision to discontinue their sponsorship, following similar moves by other major festivals like the Edinburgh Book Festival and the Hay Festival. Despite this setback, festival director Annie Ashworth remains determined to carry on.
“We are enormously grateful for Baillie Gifford’s support over the years, but we are determined to continue the festival’s legacy,” Ashworth said in a statement to the BBC. “We will survive, we just need to regroup and start looking for other sponsorships.”
The decision to end the sponsorship comes after pressure from campaign group Fossil Free Books, which has urged authors to boycott festivals sponsored by Baillie Gifford due to alleged links to fossil fuel firms and Israel. Wigtown Book Festival also confirmed the firm’s withdrawal from their partnership earlier this week.
Despite the challenges posed by the loss of sponsorship, Ashworth remains optimistic about the festival’s future. She acknowledged that the impact on operations may lead to increased ticket prices and affect literacy outreach work, but she emphasized the importance of continuing the festival’s mission.
“We all fear climate change and deplore conflict, but the withdrawal of sponsorship from book festivals is not the solution,” Ashworth stated. “However, we completely respect the company’s reasons for withdrawing sponsorship going forward.”
The next edition of the Stratford Literary Festival is scheduled to take place over the weekend of 25 to 27 October, with Ashworth expressing gratitude for the support from organizations and companies that continue to sponsor the event. She highlighted the festival as a “wonderful thing” for companies to support and praised it as an “amazing, open, democratic platform.”
As the festival looks towards the future without Baillie Gifford’s sponsorship, Ashworth remains confident in the festival’s ability to thrive and continue to attract thousands of literature enthusiasts each year.
