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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Entertainment
Kelly Burke

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

Crowds arrive for Adelaide Writers’ Week
Adelaide writers’ week was cancelled to save the 2026 Adelaide festival amid a backlash over the removal of Randa Abdel-Fattah from the AWW program, documents show. Photograph: Shane Reid

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.

After the 8 January announcement by the Adelaide festival board that controversial Palestinian Australian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah had been dumped from the AWW program, it wasn’t just fellow Australian and international guest writers and academics who began pulling out in droves.

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