Squirrel Flower has cancelled appearances at the 2024 edition of SXSW in protest of the festival's "ties to the defence industry and in support of the Palestinian people."
UPDATE (3/5, 9:21 a.m. ET): In light of Squirrel Flower bringing this to her attention, Eliza McLamb has also pulled out of her official SXSW showcase. "I will never put my name on or perform my labour for an event in service of the US war machine," she wrote on Instagram last night (March 4), "and especially not now as they continue to fuel the ongoing violence toward Palestinians. Blood money has no place in music."
In a statement shared on social media, songwriter Ella Williams shared that while Squirrel Flower will still perform at unofficial showcases in Austin, TX, outside of festival programming, the group will no longer appear at official SXSW showcases they had planned for March 12 and 14.
"There are many ways SXSW is harmful to working musicians, but I am pulling out specifically because of the fact that SXSW is platforming defence contractors including Raytheon subsidiaries as well as the US Army, a main sponsor of the festival," Williams writes.
The US Army is among SXSW's key sponsors for 2024, and is is heavily involved in presenting panel discussions and brand activations throughout the festival. Stereogum points out that Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon), will also participate in this year's festival.
"The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] has now killed at least 1 in every 75 inhabitants of Gaza, including 12,300 children," Williams continued. "The International Court of Justice has ruled that this plausibly amounts to genocide.
"Genocide profiteers like Raytheon supply weapons to the IDF, paid for by our taxes. A music festival should not include war profiteers."
In a similar spirit, the Austin for Palestine Coalition — made up of various advocacy groups and organizations in the city — has called on SXSW organizers to remove RTX, Collins Aerospace and British defence contractor BAE Systems from the festival.
Williams shared Tomorrow's Fire, her fourth album as Squirrel Flower, in October 2023.
