BELFAST RAP TRIO Kneecap and Dublin bands Sprints and Soda Blonde have pulled out a major US music festival due to its sponsorship links with the US military.
The South By Southwest (SXSW) music and film festival will be held in Austin, Texas, from 11-16 March.
The festival showcases rising talent in music, film and television.
The US Army has signed on as a “Super Sponsor” and “featured partner” of the festival.
In a post on X, Kneecap said it has cancelled its three gigs at SXSW in “solidarity with the people of Palestine”.
The rap trio said the move was also an effort “to highlight the unacceptable deep link the festival has to weapons companies and the US military, who at this very moment are enabling a genocide and famine against a trapped population”.
The UN has repeatedly warned of famine in Gaza and aid groups say only a fraction of the supplies required to meet basic humanitarian needs have been allowed into Gaza since October.
Kneecap added: “We cannot in good conscience attend an arts festival that has ‘The U.S Army’ as a ‘Super Sponsor’ and is platforming RTX (formerly Raytheon), Collins Aerospace, and BAE Systems, the very companies selling the weapons that have murdered 31,000 Palestinians.
We will not be appearing at @sxsw festival. 👇 pic.twitter.com/nt5hEMH2GM
— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) March 10, 2024
“That the organisers of SXSW have taken the decision to mix the arts with the military and weapons companies is unforgiveable, that they have done so as we witness a genocide facilitates by the US miliary and its contractors is depraved.”
RTX, formerly Raytheon Technologies Corporation, is a military contractor and derives much of its revenue from the US military.
It also supplies weapons to the Israeli military.
Collins Aerospace is owned by RTX and much of its output is in military and defence.
It describes itself as a “leader in the defence industry” and will have an exhibition at the festival, due to its role as a “participating brand”.
While Kneecap said the decision will “have a significant financial impact” on the group, it added: “It isn’t an iota of hardship when compared with the unimaginable suffering being inflicted every minute of every day on the people of Gaza.”
Kneecap added that it won’t be playing at “unofficial events” in Austin as “this would still contribute to the festival indirectly”.
In a post on Instagram, Dublin punk band Sprints also said it is pulling out of the festival in “solidarity with the Palestinian people and as a stand against the US Army sponsorship and Defence contractor involvement”.
Elsewhere, Soda Blonde said they were due to board a flight to Austin this morning for the festival but decided not to make the trip.
They too cited the significant financial loss this will have but said that the festival partnership’s “starkly conflict with our band’s core principles and values”.
We have officially withdrawn from @sxsw pic.twitter.com/8TxWaOMQOz
— Soda Blonde (@sodablonde) March 11, 2024
Soda Blonde said these partnerships “prompted deep concern in light of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine – a situation exacerbated by the US government’s provision of arms to Israel”.
“We find ourselves being asked to tacitly endorse the military-industrial complex, something we cannot and will not do,” said Soda Blonde.
“We hope this decision contributes to a broader conversation about the responsibilities of cultural festivals and the power of the arts as a vehicle for positive change.”
A host of other acts have also pulled out of the festival, including Lambrini Girls, Scowl, GEL, Ojay Shalom and Squirrel Flower.
Lambrini Girls said it had considered attending and protesting on stage, but remarked that there “isn’t a way to do that that doesn’t feel performative or inherently exploitative”.
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