Ethical Events and Festivals Forum – 19 April 2023
South Australia has a proud history of Festivals. We are known as the Festival State. Let’s become an Ethical Festival State.
Firstly I would like to say that we do not take it for granted that we are able to speak freely and meet here today – in Human Rights language we have freedom of speech and freedom of association.
Welcome to Semaphore, home of the Semaphore Kite Festival. Last weekend thousands of people flocked here over three days to a community led and driven event supported by council.
Today we are talking about ethical events and festivals.
So how did we get here ?
This Forum has been conceived and organised by a small group of Le Fevre Peninsula local citizens, in response to the LIV golf tournament to be held from Friday at the Grange Golf Club. LIV is Latin for 54, there are 54 holes in the LIV golf tournament – PGA events have 72 holes. It’s a male only tournament. In addition to the fewer holes played, other differences in the LIV tournament include that it’s played over 3 days instead of 4, it features teams rather than individual players, there is no cut so all players play the full 3 days and players who have joined up are guaranteed huge sums of money.
LIV is funded by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia to the tune of $3 billion USD, with the concept developed by Greg Norman. LIV was not an event looking for sponsorship. LIV was conceived to be a vehicle to sports wash the Saudi regime.
After learning of the decision that South Australia was to host the LIV tournament, the first in the Southern Hemisphere – a first we would rather not have – I considered how to respond. Letters were written to the Premier, The Advertiser, Events SA and the Grange Golf Club. To no avail. Others including Jane Edwards were doing the same. A local suggested I talk with Georgia Heath, who she described as a young community driven woman who opposed LIV ‘who lived just around the corner’ ! The three of us met at a local coffee shop, and discussed how to approach what we all saw as concerning developments in our state. We questioned the ethics of partnering with the Saudi regime. We were concerned about lack of transparency and accountability.
So how to respond ? There were a range of options to consider – continuing with letter writing, protest actions, civil disobedience, paid media campaigns, joining the Golf Club and making representations internally, could events could be rated akin to the Easter egg rating system for ethically sourced chocolate ? getting on local media and other ideas to increase awareness. Or a combination of these options.
It was decided to hold this Forum to discuss the concept of ethical events and festivals more generally. As the LIV tournament was the catalyst, we decided to hold the forum two days before the LIV tournament starts. Raising awareness at a time when there was a focus on the event, and a world wide focus on Adelaide. The idea of developing a framework evolved.
While we came with a wide range of skills and experiences, we thought a forum would widen the pool of people who could contribute. The idea was that if we drew together a group of people from a wide range of backgrounds, we could distil just what makes a festival or event ethical and what could be included in a draft framework. So your presence here today is vital to the process.
Ethics is from the Greek word ethos meaning ‘way of living’. How do we, as a society, want to live? With the freedoms we have, and as citizens, we can influence how decisions are made in our society.
Festivals and events may be unethical due to their funding or sponsorship, in the way they are run or a combination of both.
The extent of SA tax payers’ money going towards the hosting of LIV has started to be revealed. InDaily published on Friday that Events SA have allocated $840,000, yes way more than ¾ million, for marketing, to ‘raise awareness’ about LIV. I have no doubt you could think of better ways to spend that sum! We have heard anecdotally today that the LIV dinner will cost $1 million. Who is I paying for that ? why such an extravagant affair ? who gets that money ? We are still to learn how much this event will be costing tax payers, and how much will be covered by the Saudis. Either way it’s not acceptable. This is sportswashing. As you would have seen in Jane’s comprehensive background paper, Sportswashing is an attempt by states or corporations to deflect attention from human rights abuses they have perpetrated, by sponsoring or hosting sports events. The headlines focus on the celebrities, not the ethical issues. Green washing is the same.
We do not suggest a Forum and an ethical framework is the only response to events or festivals that breach human rights, or are in other ways considered to be unethical. We think that a framework is but one part of the puzzle, a jigsaw piece that helps complete the picture. An ethical framework will be a guide – for example if a Council was considering whether to hold a sporting tournament funded by a particular sponsor or regime, they could look at the framework as a guide.
I have been trying to fathom why would Events SA think that the LIV tournament fits within the program of events to be hosted by SA in 2023. We have events and festivals – arts and sports – with an international flavour. Through July and August there will be many nations competing at Hindmarsh Stadium in the FIFA Women’s world cup. If it was decided that we needed another international sporting event as part of 2023 programming, surely there was another sporting event that could be hosted that did not risk reputational harm to our State.
While the LIV event has come with guaranteed financial backing and is packaged as an ‘off the shelf ‘ event, with sportsmen that those interested in golf want to see, LIV comes with the baggage of sports washing. South Australia has partnered with the regime through its hosting and the tax payers money allocated to the event. No amount of marketing can untell that story.
We urge the media to ask the hard questions of all those involved – the Grange Golf club, the Premier, the Ministers involved, the players and those engaged by the players – ask about the regime funding this event, ask about human rights.
Melanie Carter
19 April 2023
