The Salzburg Festival is terminating the sponsoring partnership with the Solway Investment Group with immediate effect “by mutual agreement”. The festival announced this on Tuesday morning. The background to this decision are the serious allegations against Solway and the La Féniz nickel mine in Guatemala operated by the mining company based in Zug, Switzerland. When the grievances there by an international research team with the participation of Süddeutsche Zeitung became known, the Latvian-American director got in touch Yana Ross and playwright Lukas Bärfuss have their say. Ross is staging a new version of Schnitzler’s “Reigen” at the Salzburg Festival this summer, Bärfuss is one of the authors.
Her accusation: Solway is responsible for massive environmental damage, corruption and the intimidation and persecution of critical journalists and activists around the nickel mine. Bärfuss called for Solway’s sponsorship to be questioned. After the decision that has now been made, he is pleased: “A necessary, a right decision by the Salzburg Festival. With the announced guidelines of the BMKÖS, all of our demands have now been met, but it is only one step on the long road to liberation from toxic sponsorship in culture. The other institutions must now follow suit – not only in Austria.” The BMKÖ, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Art, Culture, Public Service and Sport, had announced that it wanted to develop guidelines for clean sponsoring. These have not yet been formulated.
According to the festival management, the exact assessment of the allegations is still ongoing
The Solway Investment Group supported the youth program of the Salzburg Festival as one of three project sponsors. In May of this year Festival director Markus Hinterhäuser announced in an interview with the SZto renounce Solway’s sponsorship “should confirm the allegations that are being investigated in internal and external investigations”.
As the festival management announced, “the clarifications and measures required additional time; the allegations could therefore only be partially dispelled to date. Since the sponsorship contract expires at the end of September this year, only the present can be used to assess the situation Both sides have agreed to terminate the cooperation by mutual agreement with immediate effect.”