Three Just Stop Oil protesters disrupted a performance last Thursday at the Glyndebourne opera festival in East Sussex by letting off a confetti bomb, blowing air horns, and shouting.
The incident took place at about 5.30pm during Poulenc’s opera Dialogues des Carmélites, with the audience remaining inside the theatre and provided with regular updates.
The ushers escorted the protesters peacefully from the theatre and the opera restarted after 20 minutes following the clearance of the stage.
A spokesperson of Glyndebourne told Polyphony that they had reviewed the security processes with support from external advisors after the disruption.
“Whilst they complimented our response and considered that we have appropriate roles and processes in place, we nevertheless decided to enhance our security and introduced those changes last Friday 16 June.”
The spokesperson continued: “We are very grateful to our staff who responded with great professionalism to ensure that the situation was swiftly and safely resolved. Though we prepare for these situations, they are always challenging. Everyone at Glyndebourne has been offered access to any additional support they may need.”
The incident was formally reported to the police, but officers were not on site and no arrests had been made.
Sussex Police said it received a report of a disturbance at the opera performance shortly before 17:30.
“Three protesters were safely escorted from the venue by staff there…Officers are investigating the incident,” the force said.
In a statement, Just Stop Oil said it was “calling on everyone to get off the sidelines and join in civil resistance against new oil, gas and coal”.
Earlier on Thursday, more than a dozen Just Stop Oil protesters were arrested during slow marches through London as new legislation came into force giving police officers greater powers to intervene and prevent disruption.