Øya Festival boss claims boycotts won’t change “anything happening in Israel”
The CEO of Øya Festival in Norway has hit out at the current boycotts targeting music festivals, saying they only affect culture and “not anything happening in Israel.”
Øya is owned by Superstruct Entertainment, which was acquired by its parent company, KKR, in a deal reportedly worth $1.3 billion in 2024. Superstruct Entertainment owns a huge number of festivals across the UK and Europe, such as Field Day, Mighty Hoopla, Benicàssim, Sónar, Sziget, Lost Village, and Boardmasters.
KKR is an investment group with financial ties to the Coastal GasLink pipeline and several Israeli corporations operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. This summer, many artists have boycotted festivals with links to KKR.
Tonje Kaada was speaking in a recent interview with IQ Magazine in the aftermath of the festival, which became a target of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestine this year due to its ownership group, KKR.
Despite Øya insisting that none of the revenue it receives are being used in “activities that contribute to maintaining Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine,” the festival has still attracted major criticism over its ownership.
Subsequently, for this year’s event, artists and promoters were encouraged to boycott their appearances, while audiences were also implored to cancel their tickets. A campaign group also launched an attack via social media, and protestors turned up at the entrance.
As a result, Kaada said she feels the targets of boycotts are misdirected, stating, “I believe it should be acceptable to have faith in different approaches to achieve the same goal. There are more effective ways of helping the people of Gaza than boycotting festivals.”
Instead, the CEO said she thinks artists can make the biggest impact by voicing their views on stage, exemplified by the Irish rap trio Kneecap, who still performed at the festival, but used their platform to denounce KKR.
During their performance, the group thanked Øya for allowing their set to go ahead, before leading chants of “Fuck KKR” and accusing the Norwegian government of “enabling genocide”.
In Kaada’s view, this type of messaging is far more successful than a boycott, as very few ticketholders requested refunds as part of the protest surrounding the festival. She added, “I feel that the only thing these boycotts are affecting is culture, not anything in Israel.”
Kaada continued: “It’s a cancellation culture that is happening in so many areas but it takes the focus away from where it should be. I believe the world can move faster in the right direction if those of us who want the same things work together instead of against each other.”
Last month, Soft Play explained their decision to play FiB in Spain despite denouncing its KKR ownership, stating that boycotting the festival “will deplatform ourselves and not have a stage to shout about the Palestinian people on”.
They added: “It’s a very tricky situation but currently we believe getting out there and spreading our continued dismay at the genocide being commited by Israel and our solidarity with the Palestinian people is ultimately going to do more than cancelling our performance and sitting at home.”
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