‘Ten times the cost’: Adelaide University cancels Palestinian literary event venue
Adelaide University pulled the venue for a sold-out event focused on the conflict in Israel and Palestine with just 72 hours’ notice, leaving organisers of the alternative Writers’ Week event scrambling to find a far more expensive, alternative venue.
A panel event that is part of the alternative writers’ week called Constellations, has been forced to move to Norwood Concert Hall tonight, after organisers were told by Adelaide University they could no longer use Elder Hall.
The last-minute venue change has cost organisers more than 10 times what was originally budgeted for the event, organisers from the Association for the Promotion of International Law told InDaily.
Their “Settler Colonialism: What it can tell us about the conflict in Israel/Palestine” panel features UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese, frontier violence historian Henry Reynolds and settler colonialism scholar Lana Tatour.
The Association is now spending $12,000 on venue hire at Norwood Concert Hall, which seats up to 800 people, plus external audio and livestreaming equipment, after Elder Hall managers cancelled the booking; they had budgeted $750 to hire and seat about 600 people at the Adelaide University venue.
Event chair Chris Sidoti, a member of the UN independent commission of inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel, said when the university made Elder Hall unavailable, it referred the organising team to the National Wine Centre, which quoted $23,500 for venue hire with technical support.
“This whole exercise, it seems to me, more than anything, a money-making venture,” Sidoti said about the University’s referral to a more expensive venue.
The Association for the Promotion of International Law is a volunteer community organisation and is selling tickets for Thursday night’s panel event starting at $10, with options to donate more. It said proceeds exceeding costs will be given to humanitarian organisations helping genocide survivors in Gaza.
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Adelaide University did not respond to specific questions from InDaily about the event or venue hire costs.
In a statement to the media, an Adelaide University spokesperson said it was “made aware of an external event scheduled at Elder Hall” last Friday.
“Following further exploration of the matter, the university could not accept the venue booking, as it did not go through the required review and approval process in accordance with the required policy and procedure,” the statement said.
“Unfortunately, this left the university with no other choice other than to advise the organisers that it could not provide the necessary support, ensure the safety, respect and comfort of those attending or deliver the quality in keeping with the university’s standards when it comes to public events of this size and scale.
“The university provided a suggestion to event organisers on an alternative venue.
“Adelaide University prides itself on being a place where event attendees are welcomed and where the exchange of ideas can happen freely.”
Francesca Albanese is appearing on the panel at the festival event via video call. She has been targeted by US sanctions imposed by the Trump administration, but because she is a United Nations independent expert, she is protected by the privileges and immunities of UN personnel, Sidoti said.
Albanese said in a post to social media platform X, that “as it often happens” the university inadvertently “contributed to securing a larger venue and a wider audience”.
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Sidoti said it was “disappointing” that Adelaide University did not think the subject of their panel was important.
“They should have had no more concern about this event than any other academic discussion,” he said.
Sidoti said after the removal of Palestinian-Australian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah from Adelaide Writers’ Week, events like the panel he is facilitating faced “an extremely worrying trend”.
“What I find most surprising for, particularly an academic institution, is that it doesn’t seem that they ever learn,” he said.
“They’ve learned nothing from the firestorm that surrounded Adelaide Writers Week.”
The panel was originally programmed for the 2026 Adelaide Writers’ Week and joined the alternative writers’ week program after its cancellation.
Former Writers’ Week director Louise Adler said Francesa Albanese was “one of the most important voices speaking the truth about the Palestinian genocide”.
“Welcome once again to Moscow on the Torrens,” she said in response to the organisers having to change venues.
“Universities, the arts and the media were once respected as sites where controversial ideas could be tested. That is no longer a given.
“As a result the conversations possible in the public square are being seriously impoverished. That can only be detrimental in the end to Australia’s long-cherished idea of itself as a robust democracy.”
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