‘Just a miss’: Sydney festival chair apologises after Israeli embassy sponsorship sparks boycott

Sydney festival chair, David Kirk, has described the board's failure to grasp the potential ramifications of accepting funding from the Australian Israeli embassy, which sparked a mass walk out of artists, as "just a miss".

In an interview with Guardian Australia on Thursday, Kirk issued a public apology, saying he regrets the distress to artists that the controversy over the sponsorship decision had caused.

Kirk admitted that the festival board was unaware of the sponsorship deal until he noticed the Israeli government logo on the festival program in late November.

But he rejected the suggestion this amounted to either a failure in communication between management and the board, or a failure to recognise whether a risk assessment was needed.

"It was just a miss," he said. "We followed all of our normal processes.

Kirk said a yet-to-be-appointed independent two-member panel would launch the review as soon as the festival concludes later this month. But he would not say whether the festival would cease accepting sponsorships from foreign governments in the future.

"We don't want to preempt the review," he said.