Sponsorship

The future of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards is at risk following the end of a two-year title sponsorship deal with UKTV channel Dave.

The awards have failed to secure a new sponsor for 2023 and will not run this year without last-minute support from sponsors.

The awards were established in 1981 by West End producer Nica Burns. She continues to oversee them and funded them herself in 2009 and 2018, in the absence of an official sponsor.

The awards are now being moved into ownership of a charitable trust and will seek funding from several smaller sponsorship deals in future years, British Comedy Guide reported.

The awards cost more than £200,000 a year to run, including events, prize funds, administrative costs and judging and scouting teams.

“As everyone across the arts knows, post-Covid the commercial landscape has changed significantly: marketing and sponsorship budgets are under huge pressure and the pool of ethically appropriate sponsors diminished,” organisers said.

"It has become clear that we need to change the funding model, to think beyond one large title sponsor, to raise money from a mix of sources.”

They called for "potential heroes” to offer support that might allow the awards to be distributed at this year’s edition of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

“As the comedy section [of the Fringe Society's annual programme] has expanded to become such a significant genre of the Fringe, so have the costs of running the awards,” Burns said.

“Having stepped in and personally sponsored them twice over the years, I will be the first to put money on the table for 2023, but post-Covid I can no longer do it on my own. 

“I am therefore inviting the comedy industry and all potential partners to get in touch immediately to help make the awards happen this year."

The 1 Big Summer Festival in Plymouth will not go ahead this year due to the cost-of-living crisis, organisers have announced.

The festival was due to be held in Hoe on 25-26 August, but financial pressures for both organisers and visitors have been cited as the reason for its cancellation, the BBC reported.

“A perfect storm of rising costs, reduction in sponsorship income, an end of support for tourism and hospitality such as VAT reductions, and an unprecedented strain on people's disposable income have sadly left the event untenable for this year,” organisers said in a statement.

People who have already purchased tickets will be refunded within 21 days.

The National History Museum has been widely criticised for a contract it signed with a Danish oil company. 

The contract was originally negotiated in 2016 with Dong Energy, a Danish company with substantial investments in oil and gas. The company changed its name to Ørsted the following year, switching its focus from fossil fuels to renewables.

The current agreement with Ørsted, which sponsors the museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, is set to continue until September 2023.

The Observer reports that the original contract included a gagging clause that prevented the museum from making “any statement or [issuing] any publicity which may reasonably be foreseen as discrediting or damaging the reputation” of the company.

Environmental groups have denounced the partnership, raising concerns about the influence of large corporations on public discourse around environmental issues and accusing the museum of greenwashing.

“It is totally unacceptable that, when the public walk through the doors of British museums, the information they consume is being controlled by large corporations,” said Robin Wells, a spokesperson for campaign group Fossil Free London.

The National History Museum has issued a statement denying that sponsors have influence over the editorial content of its exhibitions. 

“Clauses such as this are standard for corporate partnerships but, as they can be open to misinterpretation with regards to the absolute editorial control we retain, we no longer include them in new agreements,” it said.

A spokesperson for Ørsted said that the company “would not seek to influence the Natural History Museum’s views or limit its ability to provide its usual high standard of independent, critical, fact-based commentary on any aspect of the energy industry sector”. 

Hundreds of activists have staged another protest at the British Museum against the institution’s links to oil giant BP.

Activist theatre group BP or not BP, organisers of the "Make BP History" event said around 400 people took part in multiple protests across the British Museum on Saturday (23 April), culminating in a 10 metre BP logo being pulled apart in the Great Court. Protestors then went on to occupy four different rooms in the museum after closing time.

BP is one of the British Museum's longest standing corporate supporters, supporting the museum since 1996. The current five-year contract was signed in May 2016 and extended for a year due to Covid. It is understood the museum is in talks with the oil giants over extending the arrangement further. Several protests against the museum's corporate partnership with BP have been held in recent weeks.

Deborah Locke, a member of BP or not BP, said: "Renewing this sponsorship deal would send a terrible message, making an oil giant seem acceptable when we need to urgently shift away from this disastrous industry.”

The British Museum has previously defended its relationship with BP, stating that "without external support much programming and other major projects would not happen".

A science festival has ended its association with energy company BP after fielding years of criticism.

New Scientist Live, due to take place in Manchester this weekend, has shifted its approach after dropping BP as a sponsor and speaker at an online event in September.

Several scientists withdrew from the event in protest at the time, though the festival has faced pressure over the controversial alliance since 2019.

Activist group Culture Unstained welcomed the change of policy, while Dr Emma Garnett, who pulled out of the event last year, applauded the festival's courage.

"I understand it is difficult for organisations to turn away funding. However, it is vital organisations refuse fossil fuel sponsorship because these companies are polluting our discussions as well as our planet.

"I think the evidence is incredibly clear: how far we succeed in limiting climate change depends on dismantling fossil fuel industry influence in our politics and culture."

The Scottish Ballet has ended its partnership with BP.

Scotland’s national ballet confirmed it severed ties with the oil giant at the end of January as it works to become carbon neutral by 2030.

The announcement follows the National Portrait Gallery’s decision to end its 30-year BP sponsorship.

Member of activist theatre group BP or not BP? Scotland, Zoe Lafferty, said all eyes are now on the British Museum to follow suit.

“We desperately need cultural gatekeepers to start being leaders in times of crisis rather than allowing the arts to hide decades of violence towards people and ecosystems.”

The British Museum plans to renew its controversial sponsorship deal with BP, according to internal emails.

Documents obtained by Culture Unstained show museum director Hartwig Fischer met with the oil giant last year to discuss continuing the partnership beyond spring 2023.

BP or not BP, a separate activist group, staged a protest over the weekend in which they pretended to be British Museum staff presenting fake plans to drill for oil at Stonehenge, in reference to the institution's new BP-funded exhibition about the site.

Last year, the museum publicly claimed “no decision as to a future potential renewal is currently under consideration, nor is it likely to be relevant for some time”.

Culture Unstained said sponsorship renewal would be a “reckless move”.

“It would give further legitimacy to an oil and gas company that has made a massive contribution to climate breakdown and is raking in huge profits from an energy price crisis that’s causing financial hardship for millions.”