Palestinians reiterate our call to boycott Sónar until it meets its ethical duty
Is the Barcelona festival refusing to uphold BDS to appease its owner Superstruct?
June 6th, 2025
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a founding member of the BDS movement, reiterates our calls for the boycott of Sónar festival in Barcelona. We urge all participants to withdraw to avoid artwashing Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Following strategic, principled pressure from hundreds of past and present Sónar participants, the festival has done the bare minimum and dropped BDS priority targets Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. It has also backed the Barcelona city council’s call on its venue Fira to drop Israeli government pavilions and weapons manufacturers, and publicly opposed Israel’s genocide. These are welcome first steps to address its complicity and meet the Palestinian demands.
However–despite its owner Superstruct Entertainment now being majority owned by the deeply complicit private equity firm KKR–Sónar has still failed to explicitly commit to adopting its own ethical policies on programming and partnerships, which it clearly has the autonomy to do, yet has merely hinted at. It has also failed to announce that it will uphold BDS guidelines with regards to the cultural boycott of Israel, anti-normalisation, and due diligence.
Palestinians, artists and Barcelona-based organisers have patiently engaged Sónar in good faith for more than two months to encourage it to meet the demands that Palestinians have made of all Superstruct-owned events, at a minimum. In this urgent moment of genocide against our people, Palestinians need more than rhetoric. We need the end of complicity, to do no harm.
Many artists are wondering: is Sónar still refusing to commit to uphold BDS guidelines simply to appease its complicit owner Superstruct? Just weeks ago, the UK's biggest queer music festival, Mighty Hoopla, also owned by Superstruct, publicly announced that it follows BDS guidelines in its programming and partnerships, showing that when there’s a will, there’s a way. Who or what is holding Sónar back from also doing so?
Sónar’s owner Superstruct, which owns 20+ festivals in the Spanish state, clearly needs intensified pressure to understand that this is no time for damage control or crisis PR management. The Spanish culture minister has already said that KKR is “not welcome in Spanish culture”. City councils are tearing up contracts with Superstruct events.
What more will it take for Superstruct, the world’s second biggest festival promoter, to begin to directly address its own complicity? Its owner KKR is invested in the–failing–Israeli tech sector, US weapons manufacturing, climate destruction and the displacement of Indigenous people. How many of Superstruct’s 80+ festivals will be boycotted before Superstruct finally acts?
Shockingly, Superstruct has actually doubled down on its own direct complicity, saying that KKR is “fully aligned with [its] values”. On top of its complicit investments, KKR recently appointed David Petraeus–former CIA Director and former Commander of US Central Command–as Chairman of KKR Middle East. Are these the “values” that Superstruct is “fully aligned” with?
Regardless, Sónar’s owner Superstruct’s strategy for growth has always been one of acquisition backed by private equity. In partnership with hundreds of artists who have stood in solidarity with Palestinian rights and raised the Palestinian demands, our grassroots movement has effectively disrupted the viability of Superstruct’s business model. After all, which rational festival would now sell itself to Superstruct?
Until Sónar fulfils its ethical duty by meeting the full Palestinian demands, including publicly committing to a) adopting ethical policies on programming and partnerships, and b) upholding BDS guidelines in its own company and curatorial practices, our boycott remains firmly in place. With just one week left until the festival, we call on all remaining participants to withdraw, to avoid artwashing Sonar’s complicity in harming Palestinians.
Palestinians call for the boycott of Sónar festival
The Barcelona festival has failed to drop all of its complicit partnerships with BDS priority targets
June 3rd, 2025
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a founding member of the BDS movement, calls for the boycott of Sónar festival in Barcelona and urges all participants to withdraw.
Despite at least 59 participants withdrawing already, and more than 150 past and present participants calling on it to meet our demands, Sónar has failed to address its own direct complicity by refusing to drop McDonald’s McFlurry. Nor has it pressured its venue Fira to drop genocidal Israel. According to many artists that PACBI is in touch with, Sónar has also failed to sufficiently engage with artists and organisers to address their concerns.
Sónar is one of 80 festivals owned by Superstruct Entertainment, in turn owned by KKR, which is complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, climate destruction, weapons manufacturing and the displacement of Wet’suwet’en Indigenous land defenders in Canada. Many Superstruct events have been boycotted for these reasons. We deeply appreciate this solidarity from so many artists.
Following PACBI’s publication of an open letter from Sónar artists, controversy in the Spanish state rapidly grew around KKR, Superstruct, and the more than 20 Spanish festivals it owns. The Spanish Minister of Culture Ernest Urtasun said that KKR is “not welcome in Spanish culture”. One of Madrid's city councils is terminating its contract with a promoter that KKR has a stake in, meaning that six Superstruct events over three years will be cancelled.
Sónar has dropped Coca-Cola but is still partnered with McFlurry, a McDonald’s product, another BDS priority target due to its complicity in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and underlying regime of settler-colonial apartheid. Sónar’s main venue is Fira, which the Barcelona city council recently called on to drop Israeli pavilions and weapons manufacturers. Sónar has yet to publicly back the city’s call on Fira.
After PACBI called for boycotting another Superstruct event, Field Day in London, following Sisu withdrawing, half of the line-up dropped out. We now call on all participants to boycott Sónar, and we call for intensified pressure against all Superstruct events to–at a minimum–meet the Palestinian demands, as Mighty Hoopla and Boiler Room have done.
Sónar may have improved its PR, but it has barely addressed its complicity. At a time of a livestreamed genocide against our people in Gaza, we need meaningful solidarity, not rhetoric, and that begins with ending complicity.
Palestinians call for escalating pressure on Sónar festival
With its statement today, the Barcelona music festival has failed to meet the demands that Palestinians have made of all Superstruct-owned festivals, that are implicated in parent company KKR’s complicit Israeli investments
May 15th, 2025
More and more artists are boycotting and pressuring Sónar to meet the Palestinian demands. Sónar should publicly oppose KKR’s complicit investments, respect BDS guidelines including by dropping its complicit partners Coca-Cola and McDonald’s McFlurry (both BDS priority targets), and pressure its venue Fira to refuse to host Israeli government pavilions and Israeli arms manufacturers.
Sónar’s statement today reflects the strategic pressure that many participants have used towards the festival, including private engagement, and boycotts. However, it is clearly insufficient to undo the harm caused by its involuntary complicity through its ownership structure. Sónar can and must do better than mere platitudes about abstract human rights.
Pressure is growing on Superstruct Entertainment, the £1 billion festival conglomerate that was bought last year by complicit private equity firm KKR. KKR is complicit in Israel’s genocide and underlying regime of settler-colonial apartheid as well as in human rights violations against Wet’suwet’en Indigenous land defenders in Canada.
For many weeks, PACBI, a founding member of the BDS National Committee, the largest Palestinian coalition that leads the global BDS movement, has been consulting with Sónar participants and Barcelona-based organisers on pressuring the electronic music festival, including through boycotts.
Many artists are also boycotting Field Day in London after it failed to meet PACBI’s demands laid out almost two months ago. A growing number of artists are withdrawing from other Superstruct-owned events too, including Sónar. PACBI supports all strategic efforts to pressure these events, and we thank the boycotting artists for their meaningful solidarity.