By mutual agreement, the Salzburg Festival’s sponsoring partnership with Solway Investment Group has been terminated with immediate effect.
The Solway Investment Group supports the youth programme of the Salzburg Festival as one of three project sponsors. As part of this cooperation, the project “Creative Fellowship” enables young people from various countries to participate in English language courses and the Salzburg Festival’s Opera Camps, among other activities.
Due to the grave accusations levied in the international media in early March 2022 regarding the nickel mine Fénix in Guatemala, the Swiss corporation Solway initiated a comprehensive internal and external assessment into the business activities of its Guatemalan subsidiary companies. This also took place at the express request of the Salzburg Festival, which reacted immediately in early March to the accusations levied by the investigative research network, demanding an objective and transparent inquiry into the accusations. Results were to be announced by the end of June 2022.
Based on the first interim results, Solway initiated a comprehensive ESG project (Environmental, Social, Governance) at the group level. The assessments and implementations take time; therefore, the allegations could only be partially dispelled to date.
The Salzburg Festival expressly welcomes the efforts by Solway to clarify and remedy any grievances. Since the sponsoring agreement runs out at the end of September 2022, only the present findings can be used to assess the situation. Therefore, both parties have agreed to dissolve the cooperation by mutual consent, with immediate effect.