Artists: Boycott genocide-funding music festivals
No Music for Genocide. No Music for Pipelines. No Music for KKR.
Hundreds of musicians, DJs, and culture workers around the world have started a grassroots movement against KKR, a massive private equity firm that invests in fossil fuel pipelines and funds Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
As artists, we can’t allow our work to enrich corporations that materially contribute to ethnic cleansing and environmental destruction. Join us by boycotting all KKR-owned festivals and events!
We — the undersigned artists, musicians, and culture organizations — hereby pledge to not attend, promote or perform at any event owned by Superstruct Entertainment and its parent company, KKR. We further pledge to educate our peers and encourage talent agencies, record labels, venues, and industry colleagues to boycott all Superstruct and KKR-owned events, until the companies completely divest from genocide and environmental destruction.
KKR is a global private equity firm that donates to the Israeli military and has invested in real-estate, surveillance, and weapons companies directly participating in the mass-displacement and murder of Palestinian people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. It is also the majority stakeholder in the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline, a project of the fossil fuel industry which sits on un-ceded Wet’suwet’en land. With its acquisition of live events giant Superstruct Entertainment, KKR is now the owner of over 80 music festivals and events, including Boiler Room, Sonar Festival, Field Day, and many more.
In cities around the world, hundreds of artists are withdrawing their labor and refusing to participate in these eventswhile KKR and its subsidiaries facilitate egregious human rights abuses around the globe. It’s been two years since Israel escalated its campaign of genocide and forced starvation against the people of Gaza — crimes that the entire world has born witness to in real-time. These atrocities have been enabled and normalized by KKR companies like the Novaria Group, an aerospace company that provides military hardware to Israeli occupation forces and Guesty, an Israeli “prop-tech” surveillance company that helps landlords manage real-estate on occupied Palestinian land. KKR has also invested in Safariland, the infamous makers of tear gas and crowd control weapons used by police against protesters around the globe.
As artists and culture workers, we refuse to let our art and influence be used to legitimize and enrich firms like KKR, which fund the destruction of our climate and the displacement and death of indigenous peoples. We recognize the power we hold within cultural spaces, and refuse to be complicit in the “art-washing” of KKR’s crimes against people and planet in exchange for money or clout. We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine, and with the Wet’suwet’en First Nations, who have staunchly resisted KKR’s fossil fuel pipeline for nearly a decade. We urge our peers in the arts & culture industry to boycott events owned by Superstruct and KKR, and re-invest their time and talent in alternative cultural spaces where music and art can truly flourish.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
FAQ:
Cultural and economic boycotts are a highly effective and time-tested tactic of non-violent resistance. These boycotts were key to the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa in the 1980s, after countless artists and academics heeded calls by the African Nation Congress (ANC) to withhold their work and creative labor until the racist National Party government was dissolved.
More recently, thousands of artists around the world have joined with the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) in response to Israel’s military campaign and forced starvation of the people of Gaza, which human rights groups, Holocaust scholars, international law experts, and the U.N. have all declared a genocide. In addition to boycotting Israeli state and cultural institutions, activists have begun targeting multinational corporations that materially support the Israeli occupation’s ongoing violence against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
KKR (Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts) is the world’s second largest private equity firm, with a portfolio of over $710 billion that includes fossil fuels, military/surveillance firms, and real-estate companies operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. KKR is a majority stakeholder in Canada’s Coastal GasLink Pipeline, which occupies un-ceded native land belonging to the Wet’suwet’en First Nations. Its chairman is former CIA director David Patreus, and its co-CEOs are Joseph Bae, a former Goldman Sachs analyst, and Scott C. Nuttal, former Co-Chair of real-estate juggernaut Blackstone. KKR and its executives have also contributed millions of dollars in matching funds to Friends of the IDF, a nonprofit which accepts donations from billionaire executives of companies like Northrop Grumman and Bank of America to directly fund subsidies for Israeli occupation troops.
Some of KKR’s investments include:
Guesty – An Israeli “proptech” company making surveillance software for landlords to manage real-estate on illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Global Technical Realty (GTR) – Owners of a $1 billion datacenter in 2021 on occupied Palestinian land
IQGeo – Geospatial data management software used for Israeli telecom expansion in the West Bank
The Novaria Group – Large military aerospace hardware manufacturer supporting US & Israeli military
Hensoldt – German semiconductor company used for defense applications by the Israeli military
Artlist – Israeli stock media company pushing AI adoption with AI-generated images and videos
Axel Springer – German media giant that has aided illegal Israeli settlements and land theft in the West Bank through its classified ads platform, Yad2.
In 2024, KKR paid €1.3 million to acquire Superstruct Entertainment, a live events company that owns more than 80 music festivals and events around the world including Boiler Room, Sónar Festival, Lost Village, Mighty Hoopla, and Field Day. In response, a movement of grassroots activists operating within nightlife and electronic music spaces have called for a boycott of all KKR-owned events. The activists have organized public protests, and created solidarity strike funds to support artists who drop from lineups at these events.
Hundreds of artists and DJs have already publicly withdrawn their participation from these festivals in solidarity with the Palestinian and Wet’suwet’en peoples. These cancelations—which include many high-profile DJs and performers—have had material impacts on KKR and Superstruct’s business while exposing their ties to genocide and environmental destruction.
Since January 2025:
– Boiler Room has canceled events in San Francisco, Sao Paulo, San Juan, and Toronto after artists dropped from their lineups in protest of KKR’s ownership.
– Dozens of artists withdrew from this year’s Sónar Festival in Barcelona after the festival’s organizers failed to adequately address their complicity as a KKR subsidiary.
– Women and POC-led DJ collectives like Sisu and Daytimers pulled their stages from multiple KKR-owned festivals including Field Day, Mighty Hoopla and Lost Village, leading dozens more artists to withdraw their participation in the events.
– Activists have organized counter-parties in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, D.C., and other cities around the world to protest KKR-owned events and raise money for artists who turn down offers to perform.
– Over 800 Australian artists have signed an open letter stating they would refuse to play any Boiler Room events as long as the company is owned by KKR.
Art-washing or culture-washing is a propaganda tactic where private companies try to obscure their involvement in social and environmental harms by pouring money into cultural spaces. Similar to “pink-washing”—where corporations don rainbow avatars to appeal to LGBTQ communities—art-washing helps companies project a hip, progressive image while continuing to destroy the rights and lives of people they claim to support. KKR’s acquisition of companies like Boiler Room, which became a major player in electronic dance music in the 2010s, is a clear example of art-washing. Using the aesthetics of the DIY and underground music culture that Boiler Room claims to represent, KKR is able to transform countercultural spaces into a sterilized corporate front for its destructive and nefarious investments.
Some KKR-owned music festivals have made statements attempting to distance themselves from their new owners. Field Day and Boiler Room both stated that they had no say in the acquisition, with the latter claiming that it is still “unapologetically pro-Palestine.” However, this does not change the material reality of their funding and complicity. Palestinian-led organizations including the Sameer Project and FC Palestina have dropped collaborations with Boiler Room after learning of their ties to KKR, and encouraged others to do the same. As always, we choose to follow the lead of organizations led by people most directly impacted by KKR and institutions like it. Art-washing or culture-washing is a propaganda tactic where private companies try to obscure their involvement in social and environmental harms by pouring money into cultural spaces. Similar to “pink-washing”—where corporations don rainbow avatars to appeal to LGBTQ communities—art-washing helps companies project a hip, progressive image while continuing to destroy the rights and lives of people they claim to support. KKR’s acquisition of companies like Boiler Room, which became a major player in electronic dance music in the 2010s, is a clear example of art-washing. Using the aesthetics of the DIY and underground music culture that Boiler Room claims to represent, KKR is able to transform countercultural spaces into a sterilized corporate front for its destructive and nefarious investments.
No. Thanks to the efforts of grassroots activists organizing operating within nightlife and electronic music spaces, solidarity strike funds have been created to support artists who drop from lineups at these events. These activists have also organized public protests of KKR events, as well as alternative events that reject genocide and corporate complicity. Through solidarity and community, artists and fans are supporting each other in doing the right thing, and coming together to build a thriving, independent music scene.
This letter is for artists, musicians, record labels, talent agencies, party promoters, and others within the wider music industry who want to use their power to make positive change. We call on all culture workers to rise to this moment by wielding their influence, and helping build a diverse scene that rejects complicity and corporate blood money.
Contact artists you love and ask them to sign the pledge. Support artists who have signed by going to their shows and buying their music and merch. Find a local strike fund and monetarily support artists who turn down KKR gigs in your city. Show up with all your friends to alternative events organized in your community, and spread the word about KKR and its investments in the arts and entertainment industry.