A "pop up performance protest" against the sponsorship of the Edinburgh International Festival by energy giants BP will take place this Sunday.

The theatre group BP or Not BP will stage the event with Friends of the Earth Scotland, and Fringe performers, at noon.

The stage for the protest has yet to be announced but the "EIF venue" will see a piece of "guerilla theatre".

The protest is to highlight what the campaigners believe to be the "unethical choice of major sponsor".

Playwright Caryl Churchill said: "Oil companies use theatres, museums and galleries to improve their image and lobbying power.

"Tobacco companies used to do this until arts organisations decided they didn't want to endorse something that caused death.

"Now it's time to stop promoting fossil fuels, an even more disastrous future killer.'

Jess Worth from BP or not BP? said: "BP has a business plan for the end of the world, and the Edinburgh International Festival is endorsing it through this sponsorship deal.

"Organisations of all kinds - from pension funds to churches to the Rockefeller Foundation - are now severing their ties with fossil fuel companies. If the EIF doesn't drop its oily sponsor soon it will look embarrassingly out of touch."

Ric Lander, of Friends of the Earth Scotland, added: "World class performers haven't come to Edinburgh this August to make the oil industry look good. Let's clean up the Edinburgh International Festival and stop BP buying prestige at the expense of Scotland's treasured public arts."

BP has sponsored the EIF for 34 years.

BP or not BP? is part of the Art Not Oil coalition.

A spokesperson from the Edinburgh International Festival said: "The Edinburgh International Festival is grateful to all of the public and private sector organisations who support the Festival and make it possible for us to present world class work to the widest possible audience.

"We also support free speech and the right to peaceful protest."