What if a wrong party buys the festival where you play: boycotting or pronouncing you?

Suppose you are in a left punk band and you will find out that the festival you have been booked for this summer has become the property of a venture investor who is in oil, weapons and illegal settlements in the Palestinian territories. What can you do then? Boycott? Pronounce? What makes sense, what is the least hypocritical? Punk bands Hang Youth from Amsterdam and RefUUSED from Sweden chose various routes.

The situation: Private Equity Fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) from New York last year took over 1.3 billion euros in Superstruct Entertainment, a company that is in charge of more than eighty pop music festivals in Europe and Australia. In the Netherlands it includes Rockfestival Zwarte Cross, dance festivals Mysteryland, Defqon.1 and Amsterdam Open Air. In addition, KKR is in companies such as Batavus, Blue Band, Hans Anders, Q-Park and Roompot. But also in fossil fuel, weapons, Israeli data centers and organizations that have ties with illegal settlements in Palestinian territories. It also has close ties with Donald Trump.

Bands angry, festivals angry, everyone angry. The festivals quickly distanced themselves from what Zwarte Cross an « angry stepmother » mentionedand Superstruct stated that no cent is going to KKR (which might be correct in the short term, but KKR is the type of company that quickly and wants to earn a lot from companies who takes over. Along the way it is less concerned with the substantive objectives of his targets, or what they are ready for when they finish the broken carcass). It did not help: at various festivals, cancellations followed. Hang Youth canceled, just like among other things Youp van ‘t Hek and Claw Boys Claw, their performance on Zwarte Cross: “Boycot that kk tent« .

They don’t want to be part of a system that makes KKR richer, and they successfully give that signal. But really withdrawing from the world of blood money turns out to be difficult: hanging Youth immediately got ahead feet That their own webshop runs on software that earns KKR money. This summer they are also at the Down the Rabbit Hole festival organized by Mojo Concerts, and are also affiliated with Mojo’s booking office. Mojo is owned by the American Live Nation, from which companies such as Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street earn well: funds that according to human rights organization As You Sow invest in cluster bombs, landmines, nuclear weapons, white phosphorus And others not very left -wing things.

Refused does perform

« Rather hypocritical than conservative, » said Hang Youth frontman Abel Gijlswijk earlier about their deal with Mojo. And: « You can’t be a high cream anyway as an anti-capitalist in a capitalist world. People who think they can stand outside are just stupid. » Well. Doing something is better than nothing. But still … connect with – and earn to – the system that supports something that you say you are against is difficult to explain as: « destroying the system from the inside ».

Refused, the Swedish punk veterans who always have in success The Bear Heard, takes the opposite route. They declare To play at super structures (such as Szíget in Hungary), because they had even more difficulty with the inevitable hypocrisy. Because they are also at festivals from Live Nation. According to Refused, Boycotting would fall well with their supporters, but touches the festivals that cannot do anything about it at all. They prefer to make noise for « the concentration camp/cemetery that has become Gaza. »

That is also a tangible choice and a way to send a signal. But where hanging the Youth says: not a cent to kkr over our back – no matter how easy it is to make any comments – it has to hurt with refused that they are in this way, no matter how hard they call how stupid they are. A devilish dilemma, to which the left punkelite has no clear answer.

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