Pulp Confirms Adelaide Festival Performance After Writers’ Week Axing
This will be Pulp’s first Aussie performance in 15 years.
Image Tom Jackson
Pulp has agreed to perform in Adelaide as part of the Adelaide Festival after initially boycotting the event after Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah was asked not to attend this year’s event.
Her removal from the bill led to more than 180 writers dropping out of the festival and Louise Adler, the director of Adelaide Writers’ Week, announcing her resignation via an article in The Guardian. The entire board has now stepped down, with new members set to take over in the wake of the controversy.
The Adelaide Festival Corporation, the brains behind Adelaide Writers’ Week, have apologised to Abdel-Fattah and invited her to speak at the 2027 event. They released a statement you can read below:
”On 8 January 2026 the Adelaide Festival Corporation published a statement announcing that it had decided to exclude Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from participating as a speaker at Adelaide Writers’ Week this year. We stated that this was because it would be culturally insensitive to allow her to participate.
”We retract that statement. We have reversed the decision and will reinstate Dr Abdel-Fattah’s invitation to speak at the next Adelaide Writers’ Week in 2027. We apologise to Dr Abdel-Fattah unreservedly for the harm the Adelaide Festival Corporation has caused her.
”Intellectual and artistic freedom is a powerful human right. Our goal is to uphold it, and in this instance, Adelaide Festival Corporation fell well short.”
Pulp took to social media overnight to release their own statement confirming they had spoken with Adelaide Festival organisers and felt comfortable performing in Adelaide.
“Pulp were appalled to hear of the circumstances in which the Adelaide Festival board had cancelled the scheduled appearance of Randa Abdel-Fattah, and respect those who immediately spoke out against this decision.
”We want to make it absolutely clear that Pulp refuse to condone the silencing of voices. We celebrate difference, and oppose censorship, violence and oppression in all its forms.
”Our management and representatives have been in dialogue with the festival organisers since last week, when the situation was first made public. Having informed them that we had decided to withdraw from the festival in support of the boycott, we were asked to delay an announcement while they sought to resolve this crisis for all sides.
”It is our understanding that the festival programmers are now acting in good faith. The festival board that made this dreadful decision have been replaced, and a full apology has been accepted by Randa Abdel-Fattah, who has been invited to appear next year.
”Given this new and welcome development, we feel able, in good conscience, to honour our invitation to perform in Adelaide on 27 February. We hope that our free concert will be an opportunity for different communities to come together in peace and harmony.
”You can read Dr Randa’s statement here @randaafattah.”
Abdel-Fattah responded to Pulp’s post, commenting, “Thank you for your solidarity.”
Pulp are performing at a free show over the opening weekend at Adelaide’s Elder Park on Friday 27 February.
