The Lakes Festival Controversy

Earlier in the week preceding the Lakes Comics Art Festival, comic writer and critic, Zainab Akhtar Tweeted a critique of the line-up for the event, stating “66 guests= white, white, white, with a mild sprinkling of East Asia. There’s really no excuse for any comics show to look like this anymore”. Upon reading her tweet, festival organiser Julie Tait responded in a manner that many consider to be unprofessional and then proceeded to block her from the official Lakes Festival Twitter page. Upon this unfair treatment of Akhtar, many of the creators who were intending to appear at the event pulled out at the last minute stating that they were displeased with how the festival organisers had handled the situation.

On the comment made by Zainab Akhtar, I feel that although on the one hand it appears that she was criticising the Lakes Festival, her comment can be applied to a number of different conventions where the creators attending are not as diverse as some other events. The response from the organiser was definitely not professional. Not only did they criticise Akhtar for events that took place in 2014 when he refused to participate at the convention but they unblocked her after so many creators withdrew from the event and complained about how she was treated when she was blocked. Shortly after Julie Trait issued an official apology where she accepted that her comments to Akhtar were inappropriate and that she accepted her criticism and would take “meaningful and positive actions to ensure our festival is more diverse and representative of the full diversity of the comic world”. Akhtar accepted the apology and thanked all those who supported her during the controversy.

On the controversy in general I feel that although the festival organiser clearly handled the situation the wrong way, the fact that an apology was quickly issued and accepted almost makes the whole situation seem like a petty dispute over events that happened a few years ago. I think it’s a shame that Akhtar was criticised directly by Trait, however she did appear to criticise the event specifically, although she most likely was commenting on other conventions as well. And by referring to herself in the first person during her comments on Akhtar’s Tweet, Trait made it personal and thus the whole controversy becomes less about the criticism of the event and more about the dispute between the two involved.