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Is it possible that Israel’s actions have become so blatantly obscene that a cultural Rubicon is being crossed? That morality still matters in some corners of this profane world? Can it be true that collective action – however imperfect and partial – really does get the goods? Or is it naive to take comfort in small victories while the genocide continues?
These are the questions prompted by the quietly remarkable story of a prestigious London music venue that booted out a defence industry event after musicians threatened a Palestine boycott.
Kings Place in Kings Cross, north London puts on a diverse programme of folk, jazz and classical music. It also happens to house the Guardian newspaper.
Until a couple of weeks ago, Kings Place was due to host the 2025 Defence in Space Conference (Disc), a free event about the defence industry expanding into space with speeches from high-ranking officers in the UK and US military. The event is sponsored by Lockheed Martin, the company behind the F-35 fighter jets Israel has used to pulverise Gaza.
In November, musicians got wind of the fact that Disc had taken place at Kings Place in 2024, and that the venue was to host the event again this year – and started asking questions.
By May, things had snowballed. An open letter signed by over 1,400 people was made public, expressing “deep shock” that Kings Place had decided to host Disc for a second year running.
The signatories asked the venue to reassure artists that the event would be cancelled and future events would not be “subsidised by blood money, and artists will not have to share a stage with war profiteers.”
The letter also highlighted the venue’s ongoing Earth Unwrapped programme, which aims to “[bring] artists together to explore our wounded planet and how collectively we can seek healing.”
“The presence of a defence industry conference at this very same venue, with a sponsor which has wilfully and profitably played its part in the death of multiple civilians, throws this series and its aims into a much darker complexion,” the letter said. Some musicians cancelled their performances, others threatened to.
One musician who cancelled their show, who asked not to be named, told Novara Media: “We’re all complicit in what’s happening in Gaza. The thing that’s making us most complicit is that for most of the work we do, the level at which we’re complicit is kept hidden from us, so we’re not given any choice. The fact that I could discover where this is coming from gave me that choice.”
“An elephant came crashing into my house, so I had to deal with it.”
In May, the Kings Place Music Foundation (KPMF) released a statement saying it was out of its hands as it is a separate legal entity from the building’s commercial arm, Green and Fortune, so was in no position to cancel Disc – although pledged it the event would not be hosted again in 2026.
This is often where the story ends: well-meaning protest meets institutional reality. We can all have our principles, but this is how life works. From the outsourcing of cleaning workers to the continuing shipments of F-35 parts to Israel, there is always, always a governance structure or excuse in place to ensure that the bad thing can continue.
But not this time.
The KPMF statement seemed only to draw ire from audiences and artists. Subsequent social media posts promoting concerts were inundated with comments expressing concern about the Disc event.
One musician who cancelled their Kings Place show in protest at its partnership with Disc told Novara Media the statement “looked like something ChatGPT could have written. It didn’t contain the empathy or understanding that I was looking for and it made me angry.
“I think they misjudged the public sentiment. Everyone was dropping off of the program like flies.”
The statement has subsequently been removed from Kings Place’s social media, and the venue has quietly dropped Disc. At the start of June the venue began contacting artists to explain that Disc will no longer be hosted at Kings Place in line with ethics policies, which are “now in place across both KPMF and Green & Fortune”. King Place did not respond to a request for comment from Novara Media.
At the time of writing the Disc website merely says that the event will take place in London.
Arts and cultural institutions are facing increasing pressure over their ties to Israel. According to The Art Newspaper, more than 250 staff have called for the British Museum to sever its ties with Israeli cultural institutions after it chose to host a private event marking the founding of Israel attended by Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely, and the UK minister for defence procurement and industry, Maria Eagle.
At the same time, many venues have seen their Arts Council funding cut and are increasingly reliant on sponsorship deals, opening the door to questionable partnerships.
But events at Kings Place suggest that artists may be able to have some influence over how venues are funded.
“This is about other venues taking note”, said the musician who cancelled their Kings Place show. “The way that our working life is structured is that we must always seek to impress promoters and venues and stay on their good side. This victory shows that actually we’re the ones with the power.”
Simon Childs is a commissioning editor and reporter for Novara Media.
