Brian Eno and Massive Attack have joined over 100 artists in signing an open letter calling for London-based festival Field Day to distance itself from global investment firm KKR.
Shared by members of the Sisu Crew, a community for female and non-binary DJs, on Tuesday (April 29), the open letter states that “We are a coalition of artists who come together to stand against Israel’s genocide in Gaza”.
Superstruct – the company that own Field Day and many more festivals across Europe – was acquired by KKR for $1.3 billion in June 2024. As the world’s second largest investment firm, KKR has ties to several Israeli corporations that allegedly operate in occupied Palestinian territories.
The letter states: “The consequences of KKR’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and apartheid regime against all Palestinians are not only countless violations of human rights and international law, but the systematic destruction of Palestinian life and society.
“KKR invests billions of pounds in companies which, for example, develop Israeli underground data centres, and advertise real estate on illegally occupied land in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.”
Since the acquisition of Superstruct, The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) have led the calls to boycott any festival under the companies umbrella, including Boiler Room.
Now the attention has turned to Field Day, with the open letter demanding that the festival adopts an ethical programming and partnerships policy.
Although the letter states that they understand the difficult position the festival has been put in, the collective of artists have called on Field Day bosses to have an open dialogue with musicians, saying: “While we understand that this acquisition was not the choice of Field Day, it nonetheless means that the festival is now implicated in the crimes against humanity of apartheid and genocide.
“We are open to constructive dialogue with the Field Day team about how to urgently and most effectively achieve these demands, given the challenging position they have been put in.”
Field Day have yet to respond to the demands, but will be expected to tackle it in a similar fashion to how Boiler Room did earlier this year.
After receiving similar criticism, the electronic festival was quick to respond with a statement reaffirming it’s “unapologetically pro-Palestine” stance, saying: “We continue to adhere to BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement] and PACBI guidelines regarding artist programming and brand partnerships and engage with Palestinian artists and organisers in order to formalise our internal policies in line with this commitment.”
Following Boiler Room’s publicised distancing from KKR, the PACBI called on “all other Superstruct-owned live music events to distance themselves from KKR’s investments in Israel’s complicit tech sector.”
Only time will tell if Field Day accept the demands of the Sisu Crew and PACBI.
This is not the only open letter signed by Massive Attack this week, as the Trip Hop icons joined a growing list of more than 100 names supporting Kneecap’s “freedom of expression”. This follows alleged attempts from politicians and the media to censor the Irish rap trio after the group showed their support for Palestine whilst performing at Coachella. Check out the mxdwn coverage here.
