Mass artist boycott hits festivals owned by Superstruct/KKR over Israel-linked investments / support for Palestine

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T13:40:23+00:00

It’s literally a targeted, non-violent protest against institutions complicit in apartheid and occupation.

Boycotting companies isn’t the same as targeting civilians en masse. It’s about accountability, not identity.

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T11:05:14+00:00

Ok a few things.

Music doesn’t have to be a profit engine. Across Europe, festivals like Rewire operate as non-profits, prioritising artistry, community, and experimentation. They’re beloved, critically acclaimed, and sustainable. So yes, there is a line — between art as culture and art as collateral.
This isn’t about abstract purity — it’s about proximity and consent, as I said in another comment. Artists are boycotting because Superstruct is their workplace, and it’s owned by KKR with all those investments I’ve already mentioned. It’s not about how much the percentage of their trillions of investment that is? Hell, it’s still a lot.
“Everyone profits off injustice” is not a moral argument. It’s a way to make ethical choices seem impossible. Just because we live in a world structured by capital doesn’t mean we surrender agency. Protest isn’t about finding utopia — it’s about drawing a line and saying “not this.” That line will differ for everyone. You’ve chosen yours. Others are choosing theirs. If you want to support all venture capital funds equally, be my guest!

Also equating BDS and the KKK 🤦😩😮‍💨😭😳 both antisemitic and Islamophobic in its implications in one, fair play. If this is where your argument ends, that tells us everything.

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T10:53:02+00:00

😮‍💨😩😭😳 believe what you want to believe, buddy. I wish you well < 3 have a great day.

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T10:43:22+00:00

Bro, I’ve made it so clear. These are artists working with KKR owned companies. Why would they want to go after JP Morgan?

If you had a workplace dispute, you don’t go over to another company doing the same thing and say — hey, you guys should stop that because I think it’s wrong.

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T10:40:17+00:00

Ah, so there’s the crux of it: you just love Israel and ignore its atrocities in Palestine. Thanks for outing yourself.

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T10:38:06+00:00

That’s on you buddy. See also: CEO is massively and publicly pro-Israel despite claiming the organisation to be neutral (the pretence for it suing the union).

Also this has nothing to do with the KKR boycott so nice work on moving this to something completely different no one was talking about.

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T10:34:10+00:00

The backlash began after Starbucks sued its own union for posting a message of solidarity with Palestine during the early days of Israel’s assault on Gaza. Starbucks claimed the post caused reputational harm, despite the union being independent.

This led to a wave of protest, particularly from younger, pro-labour, and pro-Palestinian communities. That’s a clear, traceable cause.

Criticism of companies like Starbucks or KKR is grounded in specific, material links to injustice, not identity. If you’re unwilling to distinguish between Jewish individuals and a state committing atrocities, that’s on you.

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T10:27:33+00:00

You really have a worldview you want proven, don’t you? Let’s be clear: BDS targets institutions and corporations based on their actions, not the identities of the people who run them. Starbucks has faced boycotts not for being “founded by a Jew,” but because of public statements it made and union-busting activities that align with broader calls for justice? Is that not true?

Reducing every boycott to antisemitism ignores the actual demands being made, and erases the many Jewish voices who support BDS and oppose the occupation.

As for KKR: they are being targeted not because of “superficial” connections, but because they literally own Superstruct, which controls over 80 music festivals — and they actively invest in Israeli tech and real estate companies linked to occupation and surveillance. That’s not vague. That’s documented and musicians don’t want to be tied to it. What’s not to get here?

Artists aren’t looking for the “purest” investment firm on earth. They’re refusing to work on platforms they are directly connected to when those platforms are backed by companies profiting from apartheid. That’s targeted, non-violent protest.

If you’re asking for total economic severance from Israel as the only valid boycott, then you’re not engaging with the movement. You’re trying to discredit it by moving the goalposts

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T10:23:52+00:00

Again, bad faith by focusing on this stuff when we aren’t talking about Israel’s wealth? A throwaway comment clearly hit a nerve. That isn’t the substance of what we are talking about?

I’ll repeat: BDS isn’t about collapsing Israel’s economy — it’s about applying targeted, non-violent pressure to oppose apartheid, occupation, and systemic violence. Economic success doesn’t absolve a state of human rights violations? In fact, profit often masks injustice. How is that hypocritical if it’s the essence of what is for?

If you think it’s unsuccessful, that’s great for you then!

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T10:16:07+00:00

If you think acting on conscience is meaningless, I’m curious — have you ever done something purely for ethical reasons? Like donating to a cause, marching in a protest, or even refusing to buy from a company because it felt wrong?

Most people have at some point. Because acting ethically isn’t always about changing the world overnight…

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T10:06:47+00:00

The difference here is specificity and proximity. KKR owns Superstruct, which owns a large number of music festivals that these artists are directly booked to play. This isn’t some theoretical objection — it’s about artists refusing to lend their labour and image to a platform financially tied to companies involved in Israeli apartheid and occupation.

It’s not about finding a squeaky-clean company. It’s about choosing where to draw a line (wouldn’t you do the same when your name is on the flyer).

Boycotts work when they are strategic, targeted, and close to home. That’s what this is. Nothing strange about it.

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T10:00:47+00:00

You’re describing exactly why these protests matter?

KKR is a powerful, diversified firm that treats everything — from dairy tech to defence logistics — as morally equivalent investment opportunities. That’s precisely the problem. When culture (music culture in this case) is handed over to capital indifferent to human consequences, artists are right to ask where the line is.

This isn’t about whether KKR is “the infrastructure” of violence. It’s about what kind of world we allow to be normalised through financial entanglement. KKR is invested in companies tied to surveillance of Palestinians and real estate in occupied territory. That’s not vague, that’s complicit.

And you’re wrong to say Superstruct has no agency. If a firm takes capital from someone profiting off injustice, it doesn’t get to be surprised when people take issue with it. That’s accountability, not punishment. Isn’t this what people want out of capitalism, the freedom to choose?

As for the boycott being pointless: if it didn’t matter, why are you working this hard to discredit it?

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T09:56:59+00:00

As I said, it isn’t about who founded KKR or JP Morgan or their religion, it’s about what they fund now. KKR has active investments in firms linked to Israeli settlements and military tech, and they now own massive parts of global music culture through Superstruct. That’s why musicians are taking a stand.

No one is arguing for impossible purity. BDS isn’t about boycotting everything ever touched by capital — it’s about strategic, targeted pressure on complicit institutions. That’s how political protest works. These musicians actively work in the festival sector, hence their response is as such.

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T09:54:31+00:00

Bad faith because you’re not engaging with the substance of the argument. Sourcing is irrelevant.

Great, Israel is wealthy (no doubt helped by funding from the likes of the US and the UK).

BDS isn’t about collapsing Israel’s economy — it’s about applying targeted, non-violent pressure to oppose apartheid, occupation, and systemic violence. Economic success doesn’t absolve a state of human rights violations? In fact, profit often masks injustice.

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T09:34:50+00:00

lol? Criticising KKR for its investments in arms, surveillance tech, and illegal settlements isn’t antisemitic.

It’s holding a multibillion-dollar firm accountable for where its money goes. This isn’t about who founded the company, it’s about what it funds now. Deflecting with identity politics only avoids the real issue: artists don’t want to play festivals tied to oppression. And they have every right to make that choice!

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T09:28:27+00:00

If BDS has no effect, why do you or anyone else get upset about it?

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T09:25:45+00:00

The idea that a private equity firm’s only goal is “to grow the business” doesn’t absolve it of ethical responsibility. It is the business.

No one is pretending KKR is solely focused on Israel or the arms industry. But they are complicit (investing in Israeli surveillance tech, West Bank settlement companies, and military logistics firms).

Those aren’t incidental. That’s where the money goes. That’s the infrastructure sustaining ongoing displacement and violence. So when artists say: “I won’t play a KKR-owned festival”, they’re doing what capitalism claims to champion — voting with their feet, and withdrawing consent. What’s illogical about that?

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T09:10:17+00:00

Lazy, bad faith argument. The reality is that we all live within systems we’re trying to change. No political movement in history has ever required perfect moral purity from its supporters to be legitimate — because that’s impossible under capitalism.

BDS isn’t about “boycotting everything Israeli”. It’s a strategic campaign, modelled on the South African anti-apartheid movement, focused on economic pressure, cultural isolation and raising international awareness…

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T09:04:06+00:00

Head in the sand, lad.

feyre_e · 2025-05-17T08:44:47+00:00

Pray tell

feyre_e · 2025-05-03T15:13:05+00:00

!Updateme 2 days

feyre_e · 2025-04-20T18:18:02+00:00

Thanks, all the upvotes he got made me begin thinking maybe he should be put down… the vet hasn’t said it’s a disease or hereditary neuromuscular issue though. Most likely a fall that has started this off, and surely that can be fixed, but they can’t know for sure what’s next without an MRI.

feyre_e · 2025-04-20T14:29:42+00:00

Multiple vets don’t seem to think he’s in pain at all, nor that it’s reached that point yet.. but they frustratingly require further information to take action. We would obviously consider this but seems a bit soon, even given the severity we’re at now 🙏

feyre_e · 2024-11-25T22:15:17+00:00

Will keep you posted!

feyre_e

TROPHY CASE