Le Guess Who? stands for unity through music. The human rights violations perpetrated daily around the world—sometimes against the same people that we invite to the festival—are truly heartbreaking and unjustifiable.
After joining the Cultural Boycott Israel and expressing our support towards the goals of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) and its boycott guidelines, we are now making a further commitment to not engage with systems of injustice and oppression.
LGW, as well as U? (our city program celebrating local and creative communities) and COSMOS (our hybrid platform for music scenes from around the world) have joined Apartheid Free Zones (AFZ), an international campaign, initiated by the BDS-movement, that advocates for human rights through the principles of justice, equality and freedom.
This means that we are—wherever possible—cutting ties with brands and organizations who benefit from grave human rights violations, such as the ongoing genocides currently happening in Palestine and Sudan, and standing in solidarity with those facing injustice.
Behind the scenes, this has meant moving our bank account, switching insurance companies, leaving certain social media platforms, relocating our advertisement budgets, moving our email server plus our organization’s cloud storage and work documents, and forging new partnerships along the way.
We’re also in conversation with our venues and other current partners to see if they want to join us in this cause and if we can take bigger steps together. Through an internal AFZ committee, we're making sure that this topic is discussed and evaluated recurrently within our organization.
As indicated in our Code of Conduct and House Rules, Le Guess Who? executes a zero-tolerance policy regarding any type of sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, antisemitism, ageism and/or ableism.
We acknowledge that there are more steps we can take. One can even rightfully question if we can ever fully become free of all ties of complicity—for example because we are funded by the Dutch government, which itself also funds genocidal war machines.
For us, this realization only proves how important it is to focus on the changes we can actually make and to try to get others on board for this cause. As an Apartheid Free Zone, this is an ongoing commitment that requires continuous learning, reflection and accountability.
If you have any questions about Le Guess Who? being an Apartheid Free Zone, you can reach out to us via info@leguesswho.com.