About 60 artists launched a strike in Finland on Thursday, protesting the famous "Flow" festival in Helsinki, which began on Friday due to its collaboration with Israeli companies complicit in the war in Gaza.

The campaign, named "Flow Strike," aims to support Palestine by drawing attention to the relationship between the festival's sponsoring companies and Israel, such as YouTube and Heineken, as well as the fact that Superstruct, the company that owns the festival, was sold last June to the American company KKR, which has investments in several Israeli companies.

Finnish dancer Noa Kikuuni stated in the campaign announcement, "After investigating the economic, social, and humanitarian situation of the Flow festival, we concluded that the festival is complicit with the apartheid system in Israel."

The campaign organizers seek to pressure the festival to establish sustainable ethical guidelines for its activities, which exclude collaboration with entities linked to the state of Israel or Israeli companies.

Jenna Jouhianen, spokesperson for the Flow Strike campaign, which participated in the festival in 2019, said, "Our broader goal is for the new owner of the Flow festival, KKR, to withdraw its investments in Israeli companies and those collaborating with the Israeli state."

She explained that the main partner of the Flow festival, Heineken, owns 40% of the Israeli company Tempo Beverages, which is on the list of Canadian companies to be boycotted, and also has exclusive rights to sell beverages in Palestinian Authority areas.

The spokesperson noted that the festival previously ended its partnership with Heineken in 2023 in light of the war in Ukraine for not withdrawing from the Russian market as promised. However, the festival has since resumed its partnership with the company.

Jouhianen stated, "The organization started two weeks ago, and artists were contacted on Monday. We've had discussions with Flow for about a week."

The campaign organizers aim to further highlight the suffering of Palestinians and what they endure from the Israeli occupation, whether through the boycott of the festival or by drawing the attention of festival visitors to the Palestinian cause.

Jouhianen said, "Refusing to participate is less effective than stepping on stage at an event attended by 90,000 people and drawing people's attention to the fact that this happy event is stained with blood."

She added, "Many artists already have binding contracts with the festival, meaning they can no longer cancel them, even if they wanted to."

Therefore, the campaign organizers are calling on artists to highlight the festival's unsustainable ethical activities during their performances.

Jenna Jouhianen, spokesperson for the boycott campaign, stated, "The means to do so are free; someone might choose complete silence on stage, while another might give a lecture about the genocide committed by Israel instead of singing, so let's do something other than what the festival hired them for."

She pointed out that the festival pressured artists not to participate in the campaign, saying, "There was a message stating that we [the campaign organizers] are wrong and misrepresenting the situation and that we are trying to hold an alternative event."

Jouhianen explained that the festival's position toward Israel is frustratingly unclear, noting that while Palestinian artists were invited to participate in the festival, the group The Smile, which performed in Israel during the war, ultimately canceled its performance at the festival.

For his part, Paavo Kasin, spokesperson for the festival, commented on the boycott campaign in the local newspaper "Helsingin Sanomat," stating that the festival respects artists' freedom to express their opinions.

He said, "The humanitarian catastrophe in Palestine is shocking, and we believe it is really important to highlight it."

He added, "There have been various communications with artists," but denied the allegations that the festival pressured artists not to participate in the strike campaign, pointing out that KKR's investments in Israeli companies were not a surprise to the event.

The recent strike campaign draws inspiration from a similar campaign led by Finnish artists in the fall of 2022, protesting the National Museum of Contemporary Art "Kiasma" in Helsinki's collaboration with Finnish billionaire Boško Zabludović, who sells arms to Israel, which practices apartheid policies toward Palestinians. In April 2024, the "Kiasma" museum responded to the campaign and adopted guidelines and ethical principles for receiving funding.