Adelaide Festival’s Music Program Tryp in Jeopardy
The majority of musical artists have pulled out after the removal of Palestinian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from Writers’ Week.
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The impact of Adelaide Festival removing Palestinian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from the Writers’ Week lineup has now impacted the festival’s musical program, Tryp.
Set to take place across three venues over the opening weekend of Adelaide Festival on Friday 27 February and Saturday 28 February, the festival is in jeopardy after the majority of musical acts pulled out in protest to Abdel-Fattah’s removal.
New York-based DJ Haram was the first to announce she was boycotting the festival, with more artists following over the weekend, including all the Australian artists supporting Haram. Melbourne-based SOVBLKPSSY and local artists Skorpion King, Mr John and H34VEN0N34RTH are no longer performing, resulting in the cancellation of Tryp II at Divide.
In her Instagram stories, DJ Haram wrote, “I’m getting on a flight and might not have service when you are up n receiving these. I’m not going to play Adealdie Festival. To ‘reassess’ and kick off Randa from literary programming and keep me on musical program is a disgusting ask for me to culture wash their heinous decision to stand against Palestinians. As I’m sure you agree/can sympathise. I feel bummed about all the time n energy, especially yours, but I’m sure we can figure a way without them.”
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Skorpion King also released a lengthy statement, explaining the decision to drop Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from Writers Week “does not reflect our beliefs and values of humanity, expression, compassion and equity, and further pushes down people already facing extreme adversity.” You can read the full statement here.
Other musical acts to withdraw from the program include Melbourne-based musician Jannah Quill and Adelaide’s House of Vnholy. At the same time, local visual artist Capial Waste also released a statement where he “absolutely condemn[s] the Adelaide Festival Board Statement” and calls on the Board “to publicly apologise to Dr Abdel-Fattah and reinstate her invitation to the 2026 Adelaide Writers Week program,” otherwise he will be forced to withdraw from the festival also.
Adelaide Festival has yet to release a statement regarding Tryp, although tickets are still on sale for Tryp I and III at the time of publishing.
