A brand new petition to end oil sponsorship of the Royal Shakespeare Company launches today

Did you know you can get world-class theatre tickets for just a fiver if you're aged 16-25? There's only one catch: you have to help promote an oil company.

That's because the Royal Shakespeare Company - perhaps Britain's best-known theatre company - has branded its cheap tickets for young people 'BP £5 tickets'.

So this week, the hugely successful student campaign to persuade universities to go Fossil Free has joined forces with the movement against oil sponsorship of culture. We are launching a brand new petition which calls on the RSC to end its sponsorship deal with oil giant BP.

*Sign the petition to end BP sponsorship of the RSC here*

BP's extraction of fossil fuels around the world is driving dangerous climate change and causing toxic oil spills. The company works with repressive regimes, fuels conflict and blocks clean energy alternatives. 16-25-year-old theatregoers should be able to access affordable tickets to the plays they love without helping promote a company that is literally destroying their futures.

Luckily, there's an alternative. Last May, campaign group Culture Unstained joined together with big names in the theatre - including Sir Mark Rylance, Andrew Garfield, Maxine Peake and Emma Thompson - to launch a crowdfunded ethical alternative to BP £5 Tickets, known as Fossil Free Tickets. Excitingly, this term the scheme is also being supported by student campaign network People & Planet, the National Union of Students and Warwick Students' Union.

You can find our film explaining all about it here.

If you are a theatre fan and lucky enough to be able to get to RSC shows in either Stratford-upon-Avon or London, you should take advantage of the scheme, and if you can, donate to our crowdfunder too!  

However, the Fossil Free £5 Tickets scheme is part of a much larger, more ambitious campaign to undermine the power and influence of the fossil fuel industry, giving the world a chance to transition away from high-carbon fuels in time to prevent runaway climate change. So we are calling on students and university staff everywhere to lend their support by signing this new petition.

You may not realise it, but students are a target audience for BP, which is struggling to recruit as students get that the future just isn't in fossil fuel extraction any more. The oil industry tops the list of sectors that millennials are avoiding for ethical reasons, and sponsorship schemes like this are part of BP's strategy to normalise its destructive business activities and lure current students in.

*So please sign the brand new petition here and support the campaign* 

The movement for #FossilFreeCulture is growing fast, and already has some big wins under its belt, including both Tate and Edinburgh International Festival parting company with long-term sponsor BP.

Now the spotlight is on the Royal Shakespeare Company to do the right thing, and bring down the curtain on BP, for good.

Jess Worth, Culture Unstained (a member of the Art Not Oil coalition)