Nicolas Jaar of the group Darkside has used their sets at Coachella 2025 to share support for Palestine and call out the actions of ICE.
The trio performed at both weekend one and weekend two of this year’s edition of the California festival, and Jaar used their time on stage in the Gobi Tent to draw the audience’s attention to several political issues.
He began by highlighting at weekend one how Southern California is the ancestral home to numerous Native American tribes. He then looked back at how countless numbers of these people were killed in the mass murders across the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, and compared it to the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
“Here were committed the genocides that are the blueprint for what’s happening in Palestine right now, the same racist logic,” he said (via Billboard). “We must continue resisting, even from the belly of the beast, because this genocide is funded by American money, with technology from Silicon Valley, thanks to the complicity of all the politicians in this country.”
He then went on to call out the “run-for-profit” ICE detention jails. This included mentioning Mahmoud Khalil – a Columbia University graduate, currently detained at an immigration detention centre following on-campus protests – and encouraging people to stand up against those “making money off keeping people in cells”.
Nicolas Jaar talking about Palestine, the genocides that happened on the grounds of Coachella being the blueprint for what’s happening in Palestine, Mahmoud Khalil and all the unlawful detention going on and more during Darkside’s spectacular set at #Coachella. Free Palestine pic.twitter.com/CZLji3KmZ1
— F (@misss_ff) April 13, 2025
“These days, as some of you may know, just protesting a genocide that is happening means that you can get deported, like Mahmoud Khalil,” he told the audience on April 12.
“That doesn’t feel right. Mahmoud and many others are in ICE detention jails. These jails are run for profit by groups like CoreCivic and The GEO Group,” he alleged. “They make money off of keeping people in cells. We need to keep fighting them. For the sake of everyone there stuck without trial, and with no hope, we need to give hope. Thank you, everyone.”
As per Billboard, the musician also made a similar statement at the weekend two slot on Saturday (April 19).
“We’ve been on tour for about a month and a half, and during this month and a half, the administration of this country has been deporting people for their political views,” he said. “They have been locking people up in ICE detention jails. The prisoner count of this country keeps on being the highest in the entire world.”
“There’s more people locked up in California than at Coachella right now, and this country keeps on arming and funding, also with tech and Silicon Valley, the genocide of the Palestinian people and arming and funding Israel’s system of apartheid and ethnic cleansing,” he added.
“But the problem doesn’t stop at this administration and the administration of that country. It’s much deeper than that… It’s based off a system of racism, of ethnic cleansing both here in these lands, and also there. And there’s no way to continue on this planet without the empires falling as soon as possible.”
‘There’s no way to continue without the empire falling. There’s no future without land back’ Nicolas Jaar talking about ICE deportations and the genocide in Palestine during Darkside’s weekend 2 set at #Coachella , doubling down on last week’s speech. It’s always Free Palestine pic.twitter.com/nLIRfCmi7o
— F (@misss_ff) April 20, 2025
Darkside weren’t the only artists on the Coachella 2025 line-up to use their platform to voice their political outlook. Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap left organisers supposedly “blindsided” by their on-stage comments.
At weekend one, the livestream of their set was cut after they voiced their support for a free Palestine, and also led the crowd in a provocative anti-Margaret Thatcher chant.
“Not only was that cut,” they later said, referring to the Thatcher refrain, “our messaging on the US-backed genocide in Gaza somehow never appeared on screens either.”
At the second weekend, the band provided their own livestream, with political commentator Hasan Piker broadcasting their set live on Twitch. Slogans including “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine”, “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people” and “It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes” were projected on the screen behind them as they played.
Elsewhere, Blonde Redhead ended their Coachella 2025 set with audio of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil and the Palestinian flag, Bob Vylan displayed Palestinian flags during their set, and Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong changed one of the lyrics in their pop-punk epic ‘Jesus of Suburbia’ to draw attention to the conflict.
Instead of singing the original lyric, “Runnin’ away from pain when you’ve been victimised,” Armstrong sang: “Runnin’ away from pain like the kids from Palestine”. The switch later led to Disturbed’s David Draiman offering the singer the view of the “Israeli/Jewish side of this horrific war”.
Sharon Osbourne has called for a “revocation of Kneecap’s work visa” after she claimed that their performance at Coachella “compromised” the festival’s “moral and spiritual integrity”.
Osbourne wrote: “At a time when the world is experiencing significant unrest, music should serve as an escape, not a stage for political discourse.” She also said that Green Day’s action “would have been more appropriate at their own concert, not at a festival”.
