When Blood Money Raves Come To Toronto
“Boiler Room is funding the genocide in Palestine!”
“Hell yeah—fuck Palestine!”
Credit: @1954film
I’m one of a handful of people flyering outside of Boiler Room’s Toronto show. We’re passing out flyers that read, “BOILER ROOM FUNDS GENOCIDE,” which have detailed information on the back about the company’s ties to Israeli apartheid, the genocide in Palestine, global weapons manufacturing, and the Coastal GasLink Pipeline here on Turtle Island.
Around us, Boiler Room attendees are pissing into the bushes, tossing empty cans of alcohol onto the sidewalk—quickly picked up by diligent event staff—and for the most part, walking past us in uninspired SHIEN fits with an air of studied indifference.
“There’s no space for nuance when your politics is a boot crushing a face.”
Aesthetics aren’t everything when it comes to ethics, but they’re definitely why I’m now wary of anyone sporting a bright red hat. As social creatures, people unintentionally signal to one another, calling out for community and connection through our aesthetic choices.
Gareth Watkins wrote for New Socialist about how the right has been taken with AI-generated art, calling the lack of inherent humanity in the images generated a feature for fascists, not a bug. The lack of human connection and compassion that drives fascist political ideology is antithetical to the creation of truly powerful, moving art.
Art can break rules, make you question previously entrenched belief systems, be ugly, offensive, or poorly made, but ultimately, it is created by someone with a desire to connect. Art allows a space for nuance and even confusion. There's no space for nuance when your politics is a boot crushing a face.
Even Watkins concedes that there have, in the past, been examples of reactionary or even fascist art. However, the constant lack of nuanced thinking by the right today has destroyed their ability to cultivate truly challenging art. As much as the new right postures to have its claim on modern aesthetics—think of trad wives and mega yachts —there's something soulless and vacant in its appeal. Their appeals to populism and thoughtless greed have caused them to lose their ability to reach towards the avant-garde—this is reflected in how they party.
Back at the Boiler Room entrance, some people engage with us.
“Girl, I already bought my ticket.” “Free Israel!” “I don’t care, I’m going to party.” “Fuck Hamas!” “How much money have you raised for Palestinians?” “What am I supposed to do?”
The responses vary. We hear visceral hatred towards Palestine and outright approval for the ongoing genocide. Others go on the defensive, annoyed that we are harshing the vibe of their big, fun, corporate rave night out. Some people simply throw their hands up in the air—they couldn’t get refunds in time. A minuscule number of folks turn away from the entrance.
We are split between two entrances, two volunteers at each. I look over, and a large man is towering over the other volunteer in my section, getting in their face. He’s repeating a few key phrases over and over again. “Do you sleep on a Sealy mattress?” “Do you even know what PACBI stands for?” and mentions that a close relative of his is performing at the Boiler Room event.
At this point, it has been a disheartening hour. Boiler Room attendees around us are getting progressively drunker and belligerent. I walk over, and the man starts getting in my face, too. “I’m all about this shit—you have no idea what you are even talking about—you should see my Instagram!”
I’m embarrassed to say I freeze, trying to mentally calculate potential outcomes of the situation, trying to gauge how intoxicated he is, and trying to predict if his aggression could escalate upon provocation.
“Tell me what PACBI stands for. Did you even read their statement?” After several utterances of “I’m not going to debate you, man,” he leaves. “Y’all are fucking brainwashed!”
Ultimately, if your support of Palestinian liberation, or as he described it, “that shit,” leaves you intimidating activists who lean further left than you before going to party alongside people who were shouting “Free Israel” moments earlier, maybe you are simply not as “about that shit” as you claim.
As I understand it, the Sealy mattress comment was along the same lines as the ‘iconic’ question of, “If you’re so anti-capitalist, why do you own an iPhone?” But Boiler Room is no mattress company.
The massive international club series was recently acquired by festival operator Superstuct Entertainment, which is owned by KKR, one of the world’s largest investment firms. KKR invests in companies that are actively furthering and legitimising Israel’s occupation of Palestine and the genocide in Gaza. These include Axel Springer, a German company that advertises illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and Global Technical Realty, which supports Israeli data centres.
KKR invested in the Coastal GasLink Pipeline project, vehemently opposed by Wet’suwet’en First Nation land defenders who were surveilled, brutalized, and arrested by RCMP for defending their unceded land.
KKR intentionally uses arts funding to legitimise its other, more nefarious investments and wash its public image. This is a process known as art-washing.
When Boiler Room came to Toronto this January, Indigenous land defenders and Palestinians collectively held the line outside the event. This was a continuation of the Indigenous-led boycott of KKR, and a refusal to legitimize KKR’s artwashing through Boiler Room’s corporate rave series.
Boiler Room released a statement in response to the growing momentum of this grassroots boycott.
“We will always remain unapologetically pro-Palestine. We continue to adhere to BDS and PACBI guidelines regarding artist programming and brand partnerships and engage with Palestinian artists and organisers in order to formalise our internal policies in line with this commitment. We uphold international law and human rights for all, regardless of identity.”
“We are also unable to divest because we have no say in our ownership.”
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) also released a statement on May 26, 2025, welcoming Boiler Room’s statement in support of BDS guidelines.
“One factor that PACBI has incorporated into our demands below is the extent to which Superstruct-owned events can ever truly end their own involuntary complicity in KKR’s Israeli investments, as long as the current ownership status remains. If KKR ultimately profits, doesn’t any engagement with these events constitute some culpability, even if remote?
The corporate structure of global capital means this question is almost unavoidable in many contexts, beyond KKR and Superstruct. And yet, we would not reject the vocal support of, say, an artist signed to a major label that is itself indirectly implicated in Israel’s genocide. A core BDS principle is to differentiate between voluntary and involuntary complicity.”
Despite PACBI’s endorsement, the grassroots movement of DJs to distance themselves from Boiler Room is still growing in solidarity with Indigenous land defenders and Palestinian activists.
Writers Against the War On Gaza (WAWOG) released a statement saying that, “many of us were surprised to see [Boiler Room’s statement] welcomed by the PACBI organization.”
“We’re writing to clarify that we support and encourage the grassroots boycott of Boiler Room and Superstruct festivals.”
“Since the acquisition by KKR, anything Boiler Room does functions to artwash the violence of their parent company, whether they intend it to or not. As Amor Digital stated, while Boiler Room's complicity may be involuntary, everyone who works with them has a choice, which is why it is important to refuse and/or withdraw. Palestinian-led organization The Sameer Project rejected Boiler Room's donations at the end of March, writing:
“We will always say no to any kind of normalization or ties with organizations linked to zionism in any shape or form. No zionist money comes without an agenda. [...] Tomorrow KKR will turn around and be on the defensive about investing in Israel by saying they donated to Gaza through one of their acquired companies. They will say this to wash away their complicity.”
Wet’suwet’en land defenders also stand firm in their support of the KKR boycott.
“We continue to stand firm in our knowing and ways of our ancestors who have protected these lands since time immemorial. We have done this work with our ancestors, Diní ze’ and Tsakë ze’, allies, comrades and supporters.”
When Boiler Room returned to Toronto this summer, local collectives mobilized to organize an alternative boycott event they dubbed Spoiler Room.
Poster via @notabbq
Collectives involved in voluntarily organizing the Spoiler Room counter-event were NOT A BBQ, Art Show Near Me, BODYCLOCK, and Rival Soundsystem. The event was DJ’d by Miss Kleo, eejungmi, Zola, Bear Witness, RHOMBI, Jad Ad, FeralBats, Jonah K, BOOTYCORNFED, MaxedVisa, OMG.BLOG, Sofia Fly, Program Sam, Codiak, and Manicure, listed here in no particular order, and hosted at Cafeteria.
Screenshots of the popular nightlife ticketing website Resident Advisor on the day of the conflicting raves show where Toronto nightlife stands. Over 700 people hit ‘interested’ on the grassroots Spoiler Room event compared to the corporate Boiler Room’s mid-100s figure. Make no mistake—Spoiler Room was fucking revelatory.
Screenshot from Resident Advisor
The line wrapped the block. Inside, TRIP! Project and Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction tabled the event. There were harm reduction kits in the bathrooms. I danced so hard to Bear Witness’s set that I literally sweat through my entire shirt, which I replaced with a new one from Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction’s booth. People crowded the Caf bathrooms as per usual, some shooting the shit and others complaining that some people actually have to pee, you know. People smoked outside, hugged on the dancefloor, and let loose with the kind of cathartic release the leftist movement in our city has been desperately needing.
Spoiler Room raised over $10,000, which was equally split between donations to Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction, Reviving Gaza, and Fentaware Harm Reduction.
Yes, it was a fun party. But dance is political. Art is political.
Repackaging raves as depolitical or worse, complicit spaces only serves to co-opt countercultures in the interests of capital. The collective power and joy of the Spoiler Room counter-event demonstrated that it is possible to build a rave community outside of the complicit corporate mainstream. When blood money raves come to Toronto, yes, we dance. What side are you dancing on?