The Flow festival and the activist campaign came to an agreement: the festival tries to avoid Israel’s hybrid influence

Among other things, the campaign encouraged artists and the public to boycott the festival because of its alleged connections to Israel.

The campaign spokesperson Jenna Jauhiainen according to the negotiations with the festival started at the beginning of 2026, when the managing director of the festival changed to Katariina Uusitupa.

According to Jauhiainen, Flow Strike initiated the negotiations.

“Since 2024, we had been trying to establish a negotiation connection. However, the connection could not be opened until they changed the CEO. Katariina [Uusitupa] has been very cooperative,” says Jauhiainen.

Flow Strikes according to the announcement, the festival “supports the Palestinian civil society’s call to refrain from cultural cooperation that is linked to the hybrid influence of the Israeli state.”

Based on the commitment, Flow does not include in its program shows in which the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs or other state institutions are financiers or organizers.

According to the release, the festival is also committed to taking into account the Palestinian civil movement BDS:n of the listing’s boycottable items. The list includes companies that, according to BDS, are complicit in Israel’s war and human rights crimes.

“Flow has been a pioneer both in Finland and internationally for an ethically sustainable way of doing festival production, and we are happy that we reached an agreement with the activists who are doing important work,” festival CEO Katariina Uusitupa says in Flow Strike’s press release.

Flow’n however, the event organizer Superstruct Entertainment and its owner KKR investment company are still behind the festival. KKR has previously invested in Israel. Google and Heineken, which have investments in Israel, will also remain Flow’s partners.

So can we talk about “win”?

“We’re talking about winning,” says Jauhiainen. “This is one of Finland’s largest and certainly the most beautiful festivals, and they have brought these promises into their own structures that they will avoid Israeli influence on their stages and take BDS’s wishes into account in the negotiations.”

According to Jauhiainen, Flow Strike did not go into negotiations to demand the termination of the partnership with, for example, Google.

“We understand very well that contracts are complex and that there are large structures behind them. It is important that the requirements of BDS are taken into account with new partners and when renewing old contracts.”

Jauhiainen considers the biggest victory to be that the festival has a “genuine will to cooperate and listen to the BDS movement”.

On Thursday, Helsingin Sanomat did not reach Flow’s communications to comment on the news.