Call this social cohesion? The six-day war of words that laid waste to the 2026 Adelaide writers' festival

"It began as a quiet programming dispute in the genteel city of churches. But by Wednesday morning, a frantic, six-day war of words had culminated in the end of the 2026 Adelaide writers' week and total institutional collapse. What started with the discreet exit of a business titan and arts board veteran spiralled into boardroom carnage last weekend, with mass resignations, lawyers' letters of demands and allegations of racism and hypocrisy flung by all sides."

"The cancellation of AWW may only be the opening act. The wreckage has now cleared the way for a supreme court showdown between the state's telegenic and until now, Teflon premier, Peter Malinauskas, and the polemic Palestinian Australian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah the writer at the heart of the row, whose invitation to the 2026 event was withdrawn less than two weeks ago."

"The seeds of this spectacular collapse were sown not in the heat of January but in the spring thaw of last October, with the resignation of Tony Berg, a former managing director of Macquarie Bank and Boral, and a key festival benefactor. The resignation may have been discreet but the letter sent to the festival's board and the South Australian government on 22 October was a snapshot of a board in its last throes, allegedly held hostage by an unyielding artistic director."

A programming dispute escalated into a six-day crisis that ended the 2026 Adelaide Writers' Week and precipitated institutional collapse. Mass resignations, lawyers' letters, and global boycotts followed the withdrawal of a writer's invitation and the subsequent departure of the festival director. The unfolding crisis set the scene for a supreme court confrontation between Premier Peter Malinauskas and Randa Abdel-Fattah over the invitation withdrawal and a contentious Bondi analogy. The controversy traces back to Tony Berg's October resignation and letter accusing festival leadership of a one-sided mission perceived as a vendetta against Israel and Zionism.

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