Mighty Hoopla speak out on “unethical investment” of owners KKR amid Field Day boycott
Mighty Hoopla festival has issued a statement following artist boycotts and open letters against Field Day and Boiler Room.
The festival is affiliated with the global investment company KKR, which is also the parent company of Superstruct Entertainment. KKR is also involved in the Coastal GasLink pipeline and several Israeli corporations operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. The company is the parent company of over 80 UK and European events, including Lost Village and Sziget.
Now, Mighty Hoopla has shared a statement regarding its ties to KKR, opening with a statement on what they represent: “Mighty Hoopla is a space to connect through music, fashion, and culture. It is a space to escape the outside world, a space to feel safe. As an LGBTQ+ inclusive festival, we take issues of complicity and transparency extremely seriously, and without any knowledge, we have become caught up in something we unequivocally stand against.”
The letter then describes how Mighty Hoopla became part of Superstruct in April 2023 to deliver a better-quality festival and secure its future. They explained: “From the start, Superstruct have always ensured we maintained full autonomy and freedom across our programming, artist booking, marketing, and most importantly, our values, keeping a vital independent sensibility to our show.”
The statement then moved forward to October 2024, when “Superstruct itself had a change of ownership when its then-parent company sold its interest to a new investor, KKR—a transaction that we were not involved with and had no knowledge of until its completion. Since then, information has come to light about KKR’s unethical investments, particularly in complicit Israeli corporations, which directly counter what we stand for as a festival.”
Expanding on the often disputed terminology used to describe the conflict in the Middle East, the statement then reads: “We recognise that the world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza and that it is practising apartheid and occupation against the Palestinian people.”
It stated clearly: “Whilst we cannot control agreements or investments made in our parent companies, we wish to state our clear opposition to KKR’s unethical investments.”
In conclusion, it shared: “This is an ongoing conversation, and we want to thank participating artists, Palestinian campaigners, and queer activists for engaging with us and working with us through this period. For many years, we have carefully curated our lineups and vetted potential sponsors and partners based on our own ethical values and the BDS movement’s guidelines. We will continue to do so while building up to our biggest show to date. Mighty Hoopla stands with our community.”
This response is similar in part to the statement released by Field Day on May 15th. In their statement, they reference their partnership with Superstruct Entertainment in April 2023 to secure “operational independence.” However, similar to Mighty Hoopla, they stated: “Since then, as has been reported, they have been bought by KKR, of which we had no say in, which has prompted a passionate discussion.”
Field Day continued: “We remain in full creative control of Field Day and our values remained unchanged.” The letter is in part a response to an open letter which accrued the signature of over 200 artists, such as Brian Eno, Ben UFO and Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack, and called for the London-based day festival to distance itself from the investment firm, KKR. Following this, 11 artists pulled out of the festival.
A similar statement came from Boiler Room, which shared that it “will always remain unapologetically pro-Palestine” and “engage with Palestinian artists and organisers in order to formalise our internal policies in line with this commitment.”
Mighty Hoopla 2025 will feature Kate Nash, Pixie Lott, Loreen, Vengaboys, Kesha, G Flip, and Daniel Bedingfield on the stage.
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