Neil Young has taken on a financial giant and won.
Next summer, Neil Young will perform with Bob Dylan.
Originally, the Canadian singer/songwriter would’ve performed at the Barclaycard British Summer Time show at Hyde Park in London on July 12th. Yet, he had openly criticized the event’s sponsor.
Yesterday, British Summer Time (BST) confirmed the performance. The only problem was that Young wasn’t prepared to announce his appearance at the event.
On his website, he wrote,
“You who were taken by surprise waking up to the Bob Dylan/Neil Young Hyde Park concert announcement posted on every outlet except [Neil Young Archives], might wonder why it was not on NYA. And you should. We’re sorry. Like you, I had no idea the announcement was coming that day.”
In a now-deleted post, Young added,
“I learned that the show had a sponsor, Barclays Bank, a fossil fuel funding entity. That doesn’t work for me.
“At the moment, we are trying to rectify the situation and will soon update you on the status of the Hyde Park show. We have been talking about requiring a different sponsor as one option.”
Young has previously performed at BST in 2014. He hadn’t objected to Barclaycard’s sponsorship then.
Earlier this year, Banking on Climate Change, a non-profit group, gave Barclays a D+ rating. The group labeled the multinational investment bank a “major funder of fossil fuel extraction.”
Now, the Canadian singer/songwriter has claimed a major victory against major corporate sponsorship.
On his website, Young proudly boasted in a note titled ‘Sponsored by Nobody,’
“NYA is happy to announce that the Hyde Park show will proceed without Barclays as a sponsor. We are overjoyed, so happy to be playing the show!”
BST confirmed Young and Dylan will “play at a standalone concert in Hyde Park on the same date.” All tickets festivalgoers have purchased remain valid.
Barclaycard, however, remains a sponsor of BST. AEG has yet to confirm whether the sponsor has bowed out of the event.
Featured image by Takahiro Hyono (CC by 2.0).
Way to go Neil! Stick it the polluting, greedy oil thugs