Just Stop Oil activists have been arrested for blasting air horns and setting off a glitter cannons during a performance at Glyndebourne Festival this afternoon.
Three supporters caused the disruption during ‘Dialogues des Carmélites’, which is being performed at the world-renowned opera festival, near Lewes in East Sussex, at around 5.35pm.
The activists were booed by the audience as their air horns interrupted the opera.
They then displayed a Just Stop Oil banner as they addressed the audience, before being forcibly removed from the venue and arrested.
The festival was forced to pause while the activists were removed as audiences were faced with an empty stage.
Just Stop Oil activists have been arrested for blasting air horns and setting off a glitter cannons during a performance at Glyndebourne Festival this afternoon
The festival was forced to pause while the activists were removed as audiences were faced with an empty stage.
Georgia Mann, who was at the event, said on Twitter that it ‘gave everyone a huge shock.’
One of those taking action this afternoon, Sean Irving, 24, a PhD Student, from Norwich, said: ‘I am here because I am scared for my generations’ future.
‘I am angry that our illegitimate government, corrupted by oil money, is actively and knowingly pursuing a course of action that threatens all of our lives and the lives of our children.
‘By signing off on the development of over a hundred new fossil fuel projects, the government signs the death warrants of hundreds of millions; who face crop-failure, displacement, war and famine.’
‘The pursuit of new fossil fuel projects in 2023, is moral and economic madness. Our culture cannot survive sustained crop failure.’
Dialogues des Carmelites tells the story of Blanche de la Force, who struggles with life as a nun in a convent.
The dramatic work is famed for its tragedy and it is new for the 2023 festival.
Another of those taking action, Pia Baas, 29, a community worker from London, said: ‘This government is sacrificing everything we know and love, to enrich themselves. But you cannot eat money! We are on a course for mass hunger and societal collapse if we do not act urgently.’
‘Our cultural institutions have failed to admit this truth and failed to address the urgency of action. It is immoral for cultural institutions to stand by and watch whilst our society faces inevitable collapse.’
‘We call on art and cultural institutions, like Glynbourne, to make a statement demanding that the government end new oil, gas and coal. Those working in cultural institutions must join in civil resistance against this criminal and illegitimate regime.’
Just Stop Oil, a resistance group demanding the government to stop licensing all new oil, gas and coal projects, has made headlines multiple times in recent months for their disruption of big events.
They have previously stormed the Twickenham rugby final, thrown orange powder at the World Championship and infamously hurled Heinz tomato soup at Van Gogh’s sunflowers.
Sale Sharks player, Tom Curry gave the stewards a hand as they unceremoniously hauled one of the protesters off the pitch
A protester stormed the pitch midway through the first half of the match between Sale and Saracens
Crowds cheered his exit as rugby players intervened to drag him out of the stadium
In May, during the Twickenham pitch invasion, the protestors got more than they bargained for after they stormed the game between Sale Sharks and Saracens.
However a bunch of burly rugby players soon bundled them off the pitch as a delighted crowd watched on.
England and Sale player Tom Curry, who weighs in at a whopping 17st and towers over most at 6ft 1in, lifted one of the protesters by his trousers as he gave staff a hand in removing him from the pitch.
The climate activists who struck at the home of English rugby have been identified as Bristol GP Dr Patrick Hart, 37, and Sam Johnson, 40, a construction worker from Essex.
They ran towards the middle of the ground, where the ball was at the time, releasing the distinctive orange powder JSO activists also unleashed at the Chelsea Flower Show and recent snooker world championship.
During the match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry in April at the championship in Sheffield, a Just Stop Oil activist broke from the crowd, climbed on to the table and emptied a packet of powdered paint.
The protester, later identified as Eddie Whittingham, a 25-year-old student from Exeter University, said in a statement: ‘I don’t want to be disrupting something that people enjoy, but we’re facing an extremely grave situation.
A Just Stop Oil protester tossed orange paint over a snooker table during the World Championship before being dragged away in April
Two JSO protesters hurled a can of Heinz tomato soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in October
‘Europe is experiencing its worst drought in 500 years. We’re seeing mass crop failure right now. We’re facing mass starvation, billions of refugees and civilisational collapse if this continues.
‘We can’t continue to sit back and act as if everything’s OK.’
Meanwhile in October, two protesters were arrested after throwing a can of Heinz tomato soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in the National Gallery in central London.
The hurled the soup at the £76million painting before gluing themselves to a wall inside the gallery.
