No Music For ICE!: Why Artists And Fans Are Boycotting Amazon Intersect Music Festival

By Lauren Rearick


More than 200 artists and other members of the music industry have disavowed the retail giant Amazon, right following the agency reported its inaugural Intersect music festival, which is set to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, in early December.


On Thursday (October 24), a coalition of artists reported the No Music For ICE! Petition, Rolling Stone reported. Signed by artists including Speedy Ortiz, Deerhoof, Guy Picciotto of Fugazi, Priests, Downtown Gentlemen, and Hurray for the Riff Raff, the petition is also open for public signature; in it, the artists pledge to not participate in Amazon-sponsored events or exclusive partnerships up until Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of the agency, helps in avoiding providing services to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).


As The Guardian reported, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE use AWS services as piece of its methodology for keeping an announced database of migrants living in the United States; AWS also counts companies like McDonald’s, Condé Nast, Netflix, and Under Armour as either current or past customers. Per the MIT Technology Review, AWS servers help power the DHS’s database, which includes personalized statistics, like fingerprints and facial scans, of an estimated 230 million migrants. The event would have been supplied throughout ICE raids approved by President Donald Trump, The Washington Post reported.


No Music For ICE! Was spearheaded in part by Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz, Joey La Neve DeFrancesco of Downtown Men, Adult Mom, Evan Greer, Carmen Perry, and Jes Skolnik; the order pointed to Intersect because the catalyst for their movement. “After the lineup reveal, a lot of outrage focused on the artists who agreed to play the fest — several of those unwittingly supporting a corporation they have major concerns about,” Dupuis told MTV News. “Griping on Twitter is fine and good yet how can we expect artists to mention ‘no’ to something without articulating why that ‘no’ is crucial?”


Those that signed the petition have called on Amazon to “terminate existing contracts with military, law enforcement, and government companies (ICE, CBP, ORR) that commit human rights abuses,” stop distributing technology to businesses that work in deportations, to end the use of its facial recognition software, and to no longer work with any of those firms in the future.


According to Greer, musicians are afforded a public platform that enables them to call for change, and this petition is one such instance. “We have a responsibility to use that power in solidarity with people who are resisting oppression and human rights abuses,” Greer told MTV News. “Our involves are very simple. Nevertheless musicians are drawing a line in the sand. We won't work with Amazon when they continue to run a surveillance-based agency model that's fundamentally at odds with generic human rights."


As for Perry, she told MTV News that her involvement is personalized. “As a Mexican-American person, the way Amazon and other American tech businesses are supporting ICE and the DHS’s racist agenda against migrants is abhorrent to me,” she mentioned. “It deeply upsets me to be able to see Amazon trying to create a move into my community by hosting their first music festival featuring some of our peers, plus it felt crucial attempt to take a stand and get other musicians involved.”


Perry, a member of the musical group Remember Sports, noted that No Music for ICE! Doesn’t aspire to shame or call out musicians already scheduled to perform at Intersect; according to reports by Billboard and Pitchfork, some artists mentioned that they weren't aware of Amazon’s involvement up until the event was reported to the public on Thursday (October 17). But, No Music For ICE! Does want scheduled artists to be permitted to back out of any contractually obligated Intersect performances should they desire to. One scheduled performer, The Black Madonna, has already cancelled her proposed appearance, Billboard reported.


Amazon refuted claims that artists weren’t made aware of the company’s involvement in the festival, telling Billboard, "Our affiliation with Intersect Festival is clear in both the contract that was signed by Black Madonna’s management team and in the creative materials that were reviewed and approved. Amazon Web Services’ was named in the contract five separate times. Without consideration, we’ve determined to release her from her contractual obligation.”


MTV News has reached out to Amazon for comment.