If you feel incredibly passionately about the ongoing destruction of Gaza, firstly: I applaud you. The volume of suffering amongst Palestinians is abject, shocking and atrocious. It deserves the world’s attention. But secondly, I wonder if you can tell me truthfully that shutting down a queer festival in London will help suffering Palestinians?
I’m booked to play LGBT pop festival Mighty Hoopla on May 31st. On top of an ongoing legal challenge from local residents about the use of its site – Brockwell Park – the festival has been targeted by groups advocating BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) in support of Palestine.
This is because Hoopla is owned by a company called Superstruct – a Live Nation rival that owns around 80 festivals globally, including Field Day, Lost Village and DJ streaming platform Boiler Room. In June last year, Hoopla’s owners Superstruct were themselves bought by an American investment firm called KKR.
Influential BDS campaigners such as the clubbing-centric Ravers For Palestine have been campaigning that KKR-affiliated events are a red flag over ties to companies involved in the development of Israeli settlements on the West Bank. They also reportedly have stakes in weapons manufacturing companies such as Circor International, as well as the controversial Coastal GasLink pipeline in Canada. Some artists have pulled out of Superstruct’s events, while privately loads more are anxiously working out what to do. But despite Hoopla publicly disagreeing with their owner’s “unethical investments” in a statement on Friday, any artistic engagement with a KKR-related company still means you are on the wrong side of the issue, on a BDS level.
I don’t mind if you label my interest in this row as being utterly craven and self-serving: I would absolutely like the money this gig offer
In what has been a mostly Instagram-based dialogue so far, less amplified has been what an all-pervasive behemoth KKR actually is. They are currently the second-biggest investment firm in the world. Links to KKR are everywhere. In recent years, they’ve previously owned Boots Pharmacy, Trainline and still own Flora margarine.
They used to own DJ equipment company Pioneer and still own Gibson guitars. They used to own a 51 percent stake in record label BMG (home to Kylie Minogue and the publishing rights to Mick Jagger). They even own literary giants Simon & Schuster, who list authors Noam Chomsky, Anthony Loewenstein and Ilan Pappé on their site – three icons of the Palestinian struggle in the West. So far, nobody has called for the censure of these authors, despite being just as linked to KKR’s controversial investments as an obscure queer DJ such as myself or Hoopla headliner, Kesha.
I don’t mind if you label my interest in this row as being utterly craven and self-serving: I would absolutely like the money this gig offers. While DJ wages at my level have slumped lately, Hoopla actually pays really well. That’s in stark contrast to other festivals. I’ve heard of large events that use the work of hundreds, maybe even thousands of underbill artists and DJs but seldom offer any take-home wage, nor even travel expenses.
But venal self-interest aside, I actually wish to lead a moral life too. So my question is this: should jobbing DJs be made to feel complicit, when by the same BDS stricture, so is anyone spreading Flora on their toast? KKR are currently the preferred bidder to take over the ailing Thames Water? If you’re a customer, will blood soon be coming out of your taps, or just mine?
BDS only works if there’s mass solidarity. Yet when a movement relentlessly goes after people in soft-target scenes like dance music, festivals or queer clubbing, but doesn’t offer a narrative for the fact that the contents of an average fridge, book shelf or indeed bath might be perceived as similarly toxic, I worry it has the potential to confuse, alienate and sound hypocritical. I feel defeated every time I hear news of the situation in Gaza. I wish I didn’t feel as defeated in our efforts to do the right thing to help, either.
Oliver Keens is a writer, journalist, and DJ
