Nova Festival disappointed that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is a no-show

The chair of the Nova Festival Exhibition in London has expressed disappointment that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has failed to visit, despite having been invited a number of times by the exhibition’s hosts. 

Jo Woolfe, who led the efforts to bring the internationally acclaimed exhibition to the capital, spoke to Jewish News in the wake of the announcement that the  immersive memorial would be extending its presence in the city until Wednesday 15 July.

Woolfe told Jewish News: “We’ve sent the Mayor’s office quite a few invitations and got replies saying, ‘we’ve received it. Thank you. We’ll come back to it in a few days.’ That was on the 28 May, and then suddenly two days ago, about an hour before we announced the extension, I got replies again, saying, ‘Oh, the mayor would love to come.”

She adds that the Mayor’s office suggested some days in July when the exhibition would have already closed. “They probably said that because we were supposed to be closing on the fifth. I knew we were extending, but they didn’t. So I wrote back and said, “Yep, great, we can do any of the days’. They must have known full well we were meant to close, but I can’t prove that.”

Woolfe has not heard back again from the Mayor’s office since.

She adds: “He’s the Mayor of London. He really should be here. This is not political, it’s not religious. There were non-Jews killed, there were Druze murdered, people from all over the world and there was a Brit, Londoner Jake Marlowe, all murdered. He needs to recognize everything in his city, and this is a major event in his city. It’s wrong that he hasn’t been.”

Jewish News understands that former Prime Minister Keir Starmer also failed to visit, instead sending a letter a few days after announcing his resignation.

A spokesperson for the Mayor said: “The Mayor is looking forward to attending the exhibition very soon, and seeing for himself how this powerful and moving installation enables Londoners to bear witness to the horrific events of 7 October.

“From the beginning the Mayor’s office have been proactive in working with organisers to find a date the Mayor can attend the exhibition. Later dates were only considered once it had been announced online that the exhibition was being extended.

“Throughout the process the Mayor’s office have continued to reach out to the event organisers to find a date that works for both the Mayor and the exhibition.”

Woolfe expects total visitor numbers at the end of the exhibition run to exceed 35,000. “I have watched people walk in as sceptics and walk out in silence with tears in their eyes. These ten extra days are a gift to this city and we want every last Londoner to use them.”

Over six weeks, the Exhibition has welcomed senior political figures including Wes Streeting, David Lammy, and Angela Rayner, as well as many members of the House of Lords. The Archbishop of Canterbury, bishops from across the Church of England, groups of Muslim community members and international visitors from many countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Somaliland, have also attended.

The public’s response to the exhibition has been “overwhelming,” says Woolfe, who calls the experience “the best and worst thing I’ve ever been involved in.”

“Never in my wildest dreams would it have been this. The different people through the door, the amounts of people through the door, the increasing numbers through the door. The first week or so, it was maybe 301 a day, 250 another, then 350 another. On Sunday we had 1100 and today we’ve got 900.”

She adds: “When I was raising money at the beginning, so many people said to me, ‘What’s the point? What’s the impact going to be? We know what happened but you’re never going to get non-Jews through the door. But we’ve had more than 35% non-Jewish visitors. I always hoped that it would happen, but I could never guarantee to anyone that it would.”

Schoolchildren, celebrities, education professionals and senior figures from the music industry, including Harvey Goldsmith, representatives from Universal, Sony Music, AEG, You Tube, Live Nation, Atlantic, Island Records, and the Rolling Stones management, have stood among the burnt-out cars and scattered shoes recovered from the festival site.

In a statement announcing the extension, organisers said: “This is not a political exhibition but a visceral, unmediated return to the moment Hamas terrorists brought carnage upon more than 3,000 young people from around the world, who had gathered on a holiday weekend to celebrate music, life and freedom at a peace-loving festival in southern Israel. In that moment, 364 were murdered, among them two British musicians – a London-born British national and a British-Israeli – hundreds more were injured, and 44 were taken hostage. In the months that followed, a further 49 lives were lost as a direct result of the attack, bringing the total death toll to 413.”

The Department for Education has officially endorsed the exhibition, recommending it to more than 5,000 educators in its ‘Educate Against Hate’ newsletter.

The exhibition’s organisers embarked on a 36 hour matched funding campaign in March to try and bring it to London. After reading the Jewish News article relating to that fundraising effort, one philanthropist felt encouraged to donate the final £400k needed.

Ofir Amir, co-founder and producer of The Nova Music Festival said: “London has shown us something extraordinary.  This city has chosen to look, unflinchingly, generously, with open eyes and open hearts. The demand to extend is not simply logistical, it is moral. More people must have the chance to witness this and understand what happened to those beautiful people, before we leave.”

Sara Dein, co-chair of The Nova Exhibition London, who led the exhibition’s cross-community outreach, said: “What has moved me most is who has come through those doors. Not just the Jewish community – though their presence and support has been profound – but people of every faith, background, age, culture, and political persuasion. Muslim and Jewish students have experienced the exhibition alongside each other.  Religious leaders from all faiths, politicians from across the aisle, music industry leaders, students from every kind of school. Plus returned hostages have stood side by side with Holocaust survivors to share their horrific lived experiences. This has become a place of shared humanity. We have two weeks left. I urge everyone to come and to bring a friend or colleague.”

Prior to its arrival in London, The Nova Exhibition drew more than 600,000 visitors across ten cities worldwide – Tel Aviv, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Toronto, Washington D.C., Chicago, Boston, Buenos Aires, and Berlin.

Jewish News understands that conversations are already ongoing for the Exhibition to travel to Paris, Rome, Montreal and Australia.

• Tickets are available now at www.novaexhibition.com (from £18). Net proceeds from the exhibition will support the healing journey of The Nova Music Festival survivors and the bereaved families
• You can donate towards extending the exhibition beyond 15 July here