A group of protestors was allegedly “assaulted” and “trampled” at Boiler Room’s New York event over the weekend while demonstrating against the event producer’s ties to the controversial investment firm KKR.
Amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, campaign group Boycott Room staged a “die-in” during the first night of Boiler Room’s two-night event at Brooklyn’s Under The K Bridge park on Friday. The protest opposed Boiler Room’s links to KKR, which is the parent company of Boiler Room’s owner, Superstruct Entertainment, and is alleged to have investments in weapons manufacturing, the Coastal GasLink Pipeline, and Israeli companies that operate in occupied Palestinian territories.
Video shared on social media shows activists lying down on the ground and playing dead, wearing t-shirts that read “KKR colonizes, KKR kills” and “Boiler Room is owned by Israeli arms investors,” while being jumped on and stepped on by attendees.
“The rave went on as usual while our martyrs’ faces were trampled with indifference, Boycott Room wrote in a post on Instagram. “Endangering humans to protect their brand.”
The campaign group, which encouraged protestors to “come resist with us and be part of the refusal to cede cultural ground to these war profiteers,” claimed it took 18 minutes for venue security to respond to the incident, while music continued on stage.
In a statement, Boiler Room said it is “aware of footage from Boiler Room NYC over the weekend that appears to show an attendee acting towards a protestor in a way that has no place at our events.” Their statement continued: “We respect the right to peaceful protest, and the wellbeing of everyone at our events matters to us. We’re reviewing what happened and speaking with the venue.”
Another protest was staged on the event’s second night on Saturday. Video shared online shows a protester walking on stage and stopping the music before showing a t-shirt that reads “Boiler Room is owned by Israeli arms investors.”
After Boiler Room was purchased by Superstruct Entertainment in 2025, the party outfit and broadcast platform underscored its support for Palestine and claimed that its staff does not hold “any ownership or voting rights in the company.”
“We are also unable to divest because we have no say in our ownership,” its statement read. “No investor, past or present, has ever influenced our output. This will never change.”
Featured image courtesy: Boiler Room. Credit: Christian Flamino.