Politics
Israel involvement in Mighty Hoopla decried
A group of anticolonial collectives is calling for a boycott of Mighty Hoopla, Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ music festival due to the involvement of genocidal Israel.
The four organisations – Antifascist Music Alliance, Muslim Social Justice Initiative, NY Cultural Solidarity Project, Ravers for Palestine and Writers Against the War on Gaza have penned an open letter that explains their boycott.
Mighty Hoopla is owned by KKR, a global investment firm which invests in Israeli data centres. Data gathering technology has been central to Israel’s genocide against Palestine. Additionally, it is the primary shareholder in the Coastal Gaslink pipeline, which is invading the indigenous Wet’suwet’en lands in the West of Turtle Island in Canada.
In 2025, Land Defenders in Toronto initiated a global boycott of all KKR-owned festivals. Queer & trans artists have been especially prominent in this effort.
Israel once again accused of pinkwashing
Now, Mighty Hoopla is hosting a trans fundraiser at Wembley, which amounts to nothing short of pinkwashing and indigenous erasure.
Pinkwashing is an Israeli government propaganda strategy which cynically exploits LGBTQIA+ rights. It projects a progressive image whilst hiding Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies, which oppress Palestinians.
The open letter states:
The KKR boycott is an aperture onto a world where movements work together to dismantle empire and capitalism.
Those participating in Mighty Hoopla and its fundraiser undermine this collective project of Indigenous-queer liberation. Their proposition, that imperial core trans rights can be disaggregated from the fate of Palestinians and Wet’suwet’en, is grim and malign.
It invites queers to seek recognition from Western colonial structures rather than working alongside other targeted groups to dismantle them.
It is the spirit of the gay cop, of ‘Tel Aviv Pride’, of Stonewall giving diversity awards to MI5.
More action needed
Olly Alexander is hosting the fundraiser on March 11.
Throughout the last few years of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza, Alexander ignored thousands of personal appeals to boycott Eurovision. Shockingly, he even crossed the picket line to perform on the same stage as ‘Israeli’ singer Eden Golan.
The lineup also includes Zack Polanski, the leader of the Green Party.
Even the Good Law Project are promoting the event.
The letter requests that anyone participating in Mighty Hoopla watch Yintah – a 2024 documentary of Wet’suwet’en resistance to the Coastal GasLink pipeline. It also invites them to:
witness the Royal Mounted Canadian Police, armed with dogs, snipers and chainsaws, brutalising elders. We ask them to listen to the stories of Wet’suwet’en interned in residential schools, to hear about the mass graves that continue to be discovered, and tell us they are still happy to break this boycott.
So far, many DJs have dropped out of other KKR-owned events, including Sonàr, Field Day, Boiler Room and Milkshake. Moreover, many of these artists are precarious and from the global majority.
Despite this, only a few artists and collectives have dissociated from Mighty Hoopla: Daytimers, T Boys Club, Bledi Party, NRG Cru and yungcweed.
The letter asks:
Do the imperial core queers of Hoopla believe they are exempt from this boycott?
The letter ends:
Do not scab.
Do not disgrace our queer ancestors and their legacies of resistance.
Do not foreclose our possible anticolonial futures.
Respect the Indigenous-led boycott of KKR. This means withdrawing your participation at the fundraiser unless Mighty Hoopla is removed, and boycotting the festival itself.
There is still time to do the right thing.
Featured image via Ovo Arena