Can Europe’s music festivals break from pro-Israel funders?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 10 June 2025
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Barcelona’s Sónar Festival, a major music and technology event, is seeing artist withdrawals after revelations about its parent company, Superstruct. The live events giant is backed by the investment firm KKR, linked to Israeli weapons makers and illegal West Bank settlements, prompting a growing boycott.
In this episode:
- Dania Shihab, Artist
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Marcos Bartolomé and Tamara Khandaker, with Sarí el-Khalili, Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Kisaa Zehra, Mariana Navarrete, and our host, Natasha del Toro. It was edited by Noor Wazwaz and Sarí el-Khalili. Special thanks to Noelia Ramírez.
Joe Plourde mixed this episode. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editor is Hisham Abu Salah. Alexandra Locke is the Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
Connect with us:
@AJEPodcasts on Instagram, X, Facebook, Threads and YouTube
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, Palestinian activists called a boycott music festivals owned by a pro-Israeli fund. |
| 0:18.0 | Why is Barcelona's Sonar Festival being boycotted? |
| 0:21.6 | One word, KKR, a global investment giant |
| 0:24.6 | with ties to weapons firms, surveillance tech, and Israeli entities. |
| 0:29.6 | Can artists and festival goers join forces and turn the tables? |
| 0:34.6 | I'm Natasha Deltoro, and this is the take. |
| 0:51.8 | Artists are pulling out. Fans are canceling. Sonar Festival is in crisis. What began in 1994 |
| 0:59.3 | as a homegrown celebration of music, art, and technology in Barcelona has become a global event |
| 1:05.7 | drawing big-name acts and over 120,000 people a year. That growth caught the attention of corporate players Superstruct, a big entertainment company |
| 1:15.2 | that owns 80 music festivals globally. |
| 1:18.0 | And Superstruct is now backed by KKR, a U.S.-based investment firm with $710 billion |
| 1:24.1 | in assets. |
| 1:25.6 | But KKR's ties to Israeli weapons makers and illegal West Bank settlements |
| 1:29.7 | in the face of Israel's war on Gaza have sounded the alarm. Even Spain's Minister of Culture |
| 1:35.7 | has said something. KKR is not a welcome fund in cultural activities in our country because we |
| 1:42.3 | do not want a fund that actively participates |
| 1:45.3 | in the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel to be involved in our culture. |
| 1:50.9 | And now many artists and festival goers have chosen to take a stand. |
| 1:56.7 | My name is Dania Shahav. I'm a part-time doctor. I work in rural and remote Australia. |
| 2:04.2 | But the other half of my life is I'm actually a musician and a sound artist. |
| 2:10.3 | And that half of my life I do in Barcelona. |
... |
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