Gas company Santos has ended its sponsorship of the Darwin Festival following a campaign by environmental activists and traditional owners.
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Santos had supported the public arts event for almost 30 years, but with its contract up for renewal after the 2022 event in August it told festival organisers at a meeting on Tuesday that it would end the deal.
"We feel this is a natural conclusion point for the partnership. We are very proud of our commitment to the Northern Territory and our contribution to the community," Santos said in a letter to festival board chair Ian Kew supplied to AAP.
The board has issued a statement thanking Santos for its support, particularly of the opening night concert for which the company had naming rights.
It has also met with traditional owners and activist group Fossil Free Arts NT to discuss a $200,000 philanthropic sponsorship offer, made on the condition future fossil fuel sponsorships are ruled out and opening night naming rights are transferred to the Larrakia Nation.
The director of the McKinnon Family Foundation Sue McKinnon is among the philanthropists making the offer, and said "Santos has jumped to avoid being dumped".
"Santos has read the writing on the wall and knows the Darwin community will no longer tolerate using sponsorship to try and improve their dirty reputation," she said in a statement.
The long-running push to end the sponsorship deal included an open letter from 300 artists and producers, with Yothu Yindi also joining the campaign.
Chair of the Nurrdalinji Aboriginal Corporation Johnny Wilson said Santos' fracking project in the Beetaloo Basin was heartbreaking for traditional owners.
"It's our responsibility to look after our country but Santos is doing the wrong thing and breaking our hearts with their fracking," he said in a statement.
"The things Santos wants to do will ruin our sacred sites, our songlines, our water and our future. We live in grave danger and our future is in the hands of companies such as Santos."
Fracking in the NT's Beetaloo Basin, 600 kilometres south of Darwin, is among Santos' large scale projects, which include fossil fuel extraction in Queensland, Western Australia, Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea, and the proposed Narrabri Gas Project in NSW.
Australia's second-largest independent gas producer has seen setbacks recently, with a Federal Court ruling that plans to drill the Barossa gas field north west of Darwin should not have been approved due to a lack of consultation with traditional owners.
Fossil Free Arts NT spokeswoman Anna Weekes welcomed the festival deal ending, saying it was proof that corporate greenwashing no longer worked.
"This is a huge win for traditional owners impacted by Santos projects and local communities which have fought hard to expose Santos' climate wrecking projects," she said.
The move comes as other festivals and sports teams end ties with fossil fuel companies.
Earlier this week Cricket Australia said it was parting ways with sponsor Alinta Energy, while Netball Australia was forced to defend its deal with mining giant Hancock Prospecting.
Australian Associated Press
