European festivals Sónar and DGTL release statements on KKR ties

Barcelona’s Sónar Festival and Amsterdam’s DGTL have released statements addressing their ownership under Superstruct Entertainment and its parent company KKR, in response to recent artist-led withdrawals.

Sónar Festival first released a statement last week in response to the open letter, which was signed by artists who are due to perform at, or have previously played at Sónar, including Florentino, Objekt, DJ Haram, Kode9, Loraine James, Manuka Honey and more.

The letter, penned by BDS Movement, a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts and economic sanctions against Israel, called on the Barcelona-based festival to distance itself from KKR’s “complicit investments”.

In response, Sónar said its team “has always worked and will always work with the premise of promoting respect for universal human rights”, calling itself a “platform that promotes diversity, inclusion, and respects the freedom of expression of its artists, participants, and collaborators".

Yesterday, May 19, the festival released a follow-up statement after a number of artists subsequently pulled from the line-up, including Animistic Beliefs, Ikonika, Juliana Huxtable, and others who had previously signed the open letter.

In the latest statement, Sónar explained: “We understand that our lack of a sufficiently clear public response to such a grave humanitarian situation has caused unease and concern.”

The festival went on to express its “solidarity with the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, caught in the midst of an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe."

“We want to make explicitly clear that Sónar distances itself from any action taken by KKR,” they wrote. “We have no influence – nor, of course, any control whatsoever – over their investments or decisions.”

DGTL, based in Amsterdam, also released a statement: “Credible reports have come to light about KKR's unethical investments, which directly go against what we stand for as a festival. We recognize that the world's highest court, the International Court of Justice, has ruled that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza and practicing apartheid and occupation against the Palestinian people... DGTL does not align with KKR's unethical investments. While we have no influence over decisions made at the highest levels of ownership, we want to state this clearly: No ownership structure will ever define who we are or what we stand for. Our direction will always be shaped by our values.”