Media release: Woodside partnership with WASO expires following sustained campaign from WA artists and musicians

A flyer distributed by climate campaigners outside WASO’s performance of ‘Become Ocean’ last year.

Woodside’s corporate partnership with the WA Symphony Orchestra has lapsed and not been renewed, following sustained campaigning from artists, musicians and campaigners to persuade WASO to divest from Woodside funding because of the toxic impact on climate and First Nations culture from Woodside’s Burrup Hub.

Woodside have confirmed publicly that their funding agreement with WASO, active since 2014, has now expired and their logo is absent from the list of corporate partners in the WASO 2024 concert program.

In 2022, WA musicians and artists including Nick Allbrook, Stella Donnelly and Tim Winton called on WASO to remove Woodside sponsorship from a major Perth Festival performance of ‘Become Ocean’, a symphony about climate change performed in partnership with the WA Youth Orchestra.

Although WASO have refused to comment publicly on the future of the partnership agreement, it is understood that Woodside corporate branding will no longer feature on WASO promotional material even if funding continues despite Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill and Chair Richard Goyder both being board members of WASO and making sizeable personably donations in 2023.

Just two weeks ago, Perth arts institution Artrage severed their final ties with Woodside more than two years after removing Woodside as naming sponsor for Perth Fringeworld after a long running campaign from artists and musicians.

Last year, Perth Festival also announced they were divesting from Chevron sponsorship, meaning this summer is the first in over a decade without fossil fuel sponsorship of either major WA arts festival.

Emil Davey, a 22 year old Perth violinist and Disrupt Burrup Hub spokesman, said:

“Woodside’s brand is broken. We have disrupted Woodside’s branding so badly that an elite Perth institution is embarrassed to be associated with the Woodside logo despite having the Woodside CEO and chairman on their board. This is a vindication for sustained and disruptive mobilising from artists, musicians and campaigners who have shown that the public won’t stand for toxic emissions from Woodside’s Burrup Hub. Woodside’s blood money is no longer welcome in WA and more deals will disappear as their social licence keeps collapsing.”

Artist and musician Amber Fresh of the band Rabbit Island, who helped launch the 2022 campaign to drop Woodside from WASO programming, said:

“Living in Australia, we are all implicated in destructive industries and activities, but if we begin saying « No » to massively polluting and warming projects like Woodside’s Burrup Hub, we can shift the dial. These massively polluting companies chuck a few pennies to the arts or the Nippers and think they can keep creating projects which will, without any doubt, contribute to the destruction of what we love. We all love the oceans, the forests, art, being outside without perishing in the heat. Woodside are actually jeopardising this. It’s time to tell them ‘no more’.”

Steven Aliyan, a member of Selfless Orchestra and a Fossil Free Arts campaigner, said: 

“This is further evidence confirming the disavowal of Woodside’s toxic money being utilised by the WA arts community. This follows from Artrage's recent action to sever all ties after previously removing Woodside’s name from Fringeworld venues following sustained campaigning from artists and musicians in Perth. We look forward to WASO joining in divestment from Woodside entirely in line with the science and community opposition to Woodside’s Burrup Hub.”