Guerilla festival on cards as city councillor moves to pull Writers’ Week funding
A guerrilla festival could be on the cards as boycotting writers discuss protest options and city councillors explore cutting funding.
South Australian independent publisher Pink Shorts Press said there has been “a lot of interest” from writers and stakeholders to organise a guerrilla festival or protest event after numerous writers announced a boycott of Adelaide Writers’ Week.
More than 30 authors have now pulled out of the high-profile literary festival – including award-winning novelist Helen Garner and high-profile journalist Peter Greste – after the board’s decision to drop Palestinian advocate Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from its lineup.
Pink Shorts Press co-founders Margot Lloyd and Emily Hart are among those no longer supporting the festival, their indie publishing house had planned to contribute to at least six Writers’ Week events, including an evening session on “resistance” that had not yet been announced.
One author from the Pink Shorts Press network was preparing to travel to Adelaide Writers’ Week from the Philippines and “did not hesitate to cancel his visa” after hearing the news of Abdel-Fattah’s axing.
Lloyd and Hart told InDaily they were in discussions with local and interstate writers who had contacted them about wanting to make sure their trips to Adelaide for the literary festival in February would not go to waste.
In a statement they said the festival was a large part of why they started their publishing house in Adelaide and it was “heartbreaking” to see the board “damage the reputation” of the week.
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“In our opinion, the Adelaide Festival board should rescind their decision and step down,” Lloyd said.
“Surely it’s outside their remit to make programming decisions, or indeed to damage the reputation of Adelaide Writers’ Week. Because that is what this decision has done, deeply and irrevocably.”
Author Jennifer Mills – who is also the Australian Society of Authors Chair and withdrew from two Writers’ Week appearances – said the board decision was “disturbing” and questioned why cultural institutions and writers should pay the price.
“Writers’ festivals are fundamental, not just as a direct source of income but also to reach new readers and as a place to expand your world view,” she told InDaily.
“There’s still time to reverse this decision and save the festival.”
Councillor rallies for funding cut
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Meanwhile, Adelaide City Councillor Keiran Snape has vowed to pitch cutting council funds to the festival after the controversy.
Currently, the Adelaide Economic Development Agency (AEDA), a council subsidiary, is a sponsor of the Adelaide Festival and its Writers Week, but Snape told InDaily he intended to raise a motion at the first council meeting of 2026 to withdraw the funding.
Snape – who is also running in the upcoming state election as an Independent – said “like many other South Australians, I am deeply concerned with the decision by the Adelaide Festival Board to remove Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from the Writers Week Festival line-up”.
“Regardless of your opinion on a particular author, censorship, especially by publicly funded festivals/events, is a dangerous, slippery slope and is diametrically opposite of what Writers’ Week is supposed to stand for,” he said.
The motion would request the council to direct AEDA to withdraw funding allocated to the 2026 Writers Week Festival and remit any funding already advanced and withdraw its 2027 sponsorship.
The motion would also request the council’s elected representative on the Adelaide Festival Board to resign “to reflect the City of Adelaide’s serious concern at the festival board’s opposition to free speech and open discussion”.
Snape said he lodged the motion “after much discussion” with fellow councillors.
Adelaide City Councillor Janet Giles took to Instagram to say she was “distressed about the Adelaide festival board interfering in the program of writers week”.
“It has destroyed the week as other writers pull out of the only open, inclusive and free writers week in the country,” Giles said.
The first Adelaide City Council meeting of 2026 is scheduled for January 27.
*Editor’s Note: The chair of the Adelaide Festival Tracey Whiting AM is also a director of Solstice Media, publisher of InDaily.
