Courtesy photo
DJ event company Boiler Room is being boycotted due to its ties to Israel.
A protest against the upcoming Boiler Room DJ event in Detroit is ramping up due to its parent company’s ties to a controversial private equity firm, with a number of artists pulling out of the lineup in recent weeks.
Boiler Room is a UK-based entertainment company that throws popular live-streamed DJ events around the world. Earlier this year, it was acquired by Superstruct Entertainment, whose parent company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) has been criticized due to its investments including in Israeli-linked military firms amid the ingoing crisis in Palestine, resulting in a growing global boycott movement.
In Detroit, the protest has been led by local DJs Tylr_ and Gulley, who announced they had withdrawn from the event in late June.
“As someone rooted in Detroit, a city built on resistance, creativity, and collective power, I refuse to let our cultural spaces be used to sanitize the image of global capital and militarism,” Tyler_ wrote in an Instagram post. “I stand with the people of Palestine, and with artists and communities worldwide demanding accountability from the platforms that profit from our labor and voices.”
He added, “This wasn’t an easy decision — but it’s the right one.”
The sentiment was echoed by DJ Gulley.
“Although I have been assured that Boiler Room does not directly contribute financially to KKR, I still feel that I need to stand with my community in rejecting KKR’s destructive corporate presence in our city,” Gulley wrote on Instagram. “Therefore, I have made the decision to drop out of this year’s event.”
He added, “I appreciate being given the opportunity, but I need to stand on my values.”
Earlier this month, Chicago DJs Slugo and Clent also withdrew from the event.
A GoFundMe page crowdfunding campaign has been launched to create a strike fund for artists.
“Detroit has such a rich history of protest and strikes,” organizers wrote on GoFundMe. “We hope the remaining artists on the lineup remember that and stand with us in solidarity.”
KKR has been criticized for its ties to firms linked to Israel as its military wages attacks in the Middle East, killing tens of thousands of people. KKR has also come under fire for its role in the Toys R Us bankruptcy and its investments in the Coastal GasLink Pipeline in Canada, which is opposed by Indigenous tribes for encroaching on their land.
Metro Times reached out to Boiler Room, Superstruct Entertainment, and KKR for comment.
The location of the upcoming Detroit Boiler Room party, set for Saturday, July 26, has not yet been announced. Boiler Room events are often held at secret locations, revealed the day of the show to ticketholders in a manner reminiscent of the warehouse rave culture of the 1980s and ’90s.
At a recent Boiler Room event in New York City, a protester stormed the stage holding a banner accusing the event of its complicity in what has been called a genocide.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
