Adelaide writers’ week sacrificed to save city’s prestigious arts festival, documents show

<p>Briefings obtained by freedom of information warned a ‘cascade of withdrawals’ could lead to collapse of 2026 South Australian festival</p><ul><li><p>Get our <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl">breaking news email</a>, <a href="https://app.adjust.com/w4u7jx3">free app</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/series/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl">daily news podcast</a></p></li></ul><p>Adelaide writers’ week was sacrificed to save the 2026 Adelaide festival, an event that ploughs more than $60m into South Australia’s economy each year, documents show.</p><p>After the 8 January announcement by the Adelaide festival board that controversial Palestinian Australian academic <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/08/adelaide-writers-week-dumps-prominent-academic-randa-abdel-fattah-over-cultural-sensitivity-concerns-after-bondi-attack-ntwnfb">Randa Abdel-Fattah had been dumped</a> from the AWW program, it wasn’t just fellow Australian and international guest writers and academics who <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/13/an-australian-writers-festival-cut-a-palestinian-author-in-the-wake-of-a-terror-attack-then-the-whole-thing-fell-apart-ntwnfb">began pulling out in droves</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/apr/28/adelaide-writers-week-2026-cancelled-to-save-festival">Continue reading...</a>