HARDWARE AND INFECTED MUSHROOM STATEMENT
Infected Mushroom and Hardware Corporation Pty Ltd, the promoter of Infected Mushroom for part of the band’s Australian tour, make the following joint statement clarifying facts on a series of events that have transpired since the band announced their Australian tour. We choose music over politics and we do not hold artists responsible for the actions of world leaders. We create safe spaces for people to come, socialise, connect and dance united in music regardless of colour, race, religion, gender or personal belief.
Infected Mushroom (US citizens, originally from Israel) and Earth Frequency Festival (EFF) confirmed originally to perform in May 2025 moved the festival to October 2025 and the band assisted with moving the booked dates. When the lineup for EFF was announced, EFF received negative feedback from a section of its community. In determining a response, EFF consulted with Subhi Awad from the Northern Rivers For Palestine group. Unfortunately, the response statement offended the Israeli and Jewish community of its fan base feeling left out of the process, with all of us admitting to doing it differently next time. There are no hard feelings between EFF and the band.
Infected Mushroom chose to “sit out” EFF due to division between the festival’s community due to divisive exchanges on both sides. Following this announcement, we obtained a copy of a press release sent by the Northern Rivers Friends of Palestine Group to Australian media on 3rd July 2025. It falsely stated that EFFs Ethical Commitment Policy had “resulted in high-profile artist withdrawal” and that the band “chose to exclude themselves rather than sign the Ethical Commitment Policy”. These two statements imply the band were asked to sign something and they refused. This was not accurate.
Earth Frequency Festival did not ask Infected Mushroom to sign anything. The result of these incorrect statements have created factually inaccurate news articles resonating around the world from LA to London and has, in our view, created further division. Since the news articles surfaced, an online petition in Adelaide arose along with various “Boycott Infected Mushroom” social media pages. Federal Police have been involved since and will continue to work through it under the anti-semitism
taskforce, Operation Avalite and their newly announced initiatives.
Why were statements not made by EFF and the band earlier? EFF shaped its response through its commitment to diversity, inclusivity, unity, and human rights. There was a lot of pressure through the viral. online boycott campaign to cancel Infected Mushroom, but this was never a position EFF was willing to take given the lack of credible evidence of any pro-war, pro-violence, hateful or racist sentiments shared by the artists. EFF was mid way through developing a responsible platforming policy when the boycott campaign began, and EFF acknowledges that a rushed and reactive response to simultaneously launch this policy and address concerns on both sides of a very divisive political issue could be problematic. The EFF team continued consultation and restorative dialogue directly with concerned community members. Social media commentary became extremely divisive and distorted, so ultimately the online discussions were closed off and some time was given before coming together with Hardware and IM for this joint statement.
Infected Mushroom, Hardware and EFF are united in their position following the withdrawal of Infected Mushroom from the line-up. We have been actively communicating all the way through and navigating what simply is a new frontier with new challenges, as the world’s left and right push each other further away. It is a time when we need the community and fans to unite, not divide further.
STATEMENT FROM INFECTED MUSHROOM
We are heartbroken by the ongoing violence and the suffering of innocent human lives in the Middle East. We have always stood for bringing people together on the dance floor, across borders, and without discrimination of race, religion or identity. To call for the cancellation of our shows simply because we are Israeli is hateful, antisemitic, and counterproductive. It does nothing to end the war or foster peace, and instead only deepens the cycle of division and hate.
We live in a world where opinions are often mistaken for facts, and narratives are easily taken as reality. We respect all perspectives and welcome dialogue within our community. At the same time, we cannot agree with or stand by lies and misinformation that misrepresent our intentions or harm our reputation. We’ve always believed in creating inclusive spaces through music, and our message has always been that music
can provide common ground when politics fail. The horrific massacre on October 7th where more than 411 innocent people were brutally murdered by extremists and terrorists while dancing at Nova Festival, was painful in our community. We helped support victims and uplift the trance music community worldwide by playing a memorial event. Our goal has always been to promote peace, healing, and coexistence through our music. A member of the band has served in a non-combat unit (as it is compulsory to do so after you finish school). We are musicians. We have never raised money for military activity, and we do not create art to push political agendas. We released a track with Omer Adam as a tribute to a young woman murdered in the horrific attack, using the Israel flag in artwork as an expression of grief. Our shows are about music, unity, and healing. To frame music as complicity in violence is unfair and disregards the role art plays in building
bridges.
Our invitation remains the same: come dance with us. Experience what our music truly stands for—joy, connection and coexistence, where people can be reminded of their shared humanity.
STATEMENT FROM HARDWARE
We condemn all forms of war, violence and terrorism. What is happening in the Middle East is a tragedy and we wish for all to live in peace. We are saddened at what is happening and our sincere thoughts go out to all people embroiled in this war on all sides of all borders. And that includes Australians with loved ones over there. The Northern Rivers For Palestine (NRFP) press release sent to news media was inaccurate. It hurt a band that has not supported or has anything to do with what’s happening in Gaza. The press release spawned negative commentary which, in turn, has created further division, at a time when we need more unification. Social media is not a credible source for news. Unfortunately some people cannot distinguish fact from fiction online. It has demonstrated how sad the world has become when people behind keyboards get a voice in an uncontrollable frontier (the internet), attacking people for no justified reason.
The Adelaide UniBar stated they were “apolitical” and yet disappointingly cancelled the Adelaide show following an undeserved smear campaign based on misinformation. We wish EFF all the best with their 20 Year Anniversary and look forward to working with the EFF team in the future.
STATEMENT FROM EARTH FREQUENCY
Music, art, dance, festivals, concerts and raves provide a unique place in the world where our differences can become irrelevant – even just for a while – and that is something vital and important in today’s world. People of any background can come together in unity for an essential human experience of connection regardless of age, gender, nationality, religious belief or sexuality. Witnessing the division that this issue has caused has been one of the most sad and difficult experiences for us in our many years of involvement in the music industry.
Our hearts go out to everyone affected in any way by the terrible violence that has occurred in the conflict between Israel and Palestine, as with any situation of war. But what is clear after the way this situation has played out is that the solution to division on a mass scale, is not more division. The EFF team remains proud of our festival’s stance against bigotry and racism through our platforming policy as a key part of creating safe and inclusive events. It has been very disappointing to witness a simple statement be used to suit different political agendas. There has been a lot of misinformation the entire way through this situation and all things considered, it seems clear that politicising artistic platforms that aim to bring people together and create unity in a unique way that is missing from so many other parts of life only causes more harm and division.
We released our response to a viral boycott campaign and when there was mixed feedback from the community, we returned to consultation mode. Infected Mushroom were never asked to sign on to any specific policy or agreement either before or after they chose to remove themselves from the festival lineup.EFF stands for unity. We celebrate diversity. The EFF community represents 20 years of commitment to the
idea that what we share in common is stronger than what our differences may be and that mission and that
commitment will remain and will only be strengthened by this episode.
We wish Infected Mushroom all the best and we understand their decision to sit this year out given how the broader discussion unfolded. We also thank Hardware and the Infected Mushroom team for their clear and supportive approach through a difficult situation.