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Saudi Arabia enlists influencers for music festival but human rights and Khashoggi killing get in the way

  • The event was organised by the kingdom’s entertainment authority and is part of its sweeping public relations strategy
  • It was held the weekend before the government announced five people would be put to death for the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

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Actor Ryan Philippe defended his attendance. Photo: Instagram
The Washington Post

On social media accounts of the followed and famous, the MDL Beast music festival was a rave true to form: fluorescent face paint, flashing lights and a star-studded line-up of DJs that spun dance music into the wee hours.

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Officially, the festival was “revolutionary,” “progressive” and “a remarkable first” – superlatives many of its influencer-attendees reiterated in posts seen by millions of followers on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat during the three-day concert that concluded on Saturday.

What didn’t make it into their captions and tweets, however, was any reference to reports that document the human rights abuses of the festival’s host, the government of Saudi Arabia.
The event – along with the stars who were invited and possibly to attend – was organised by the kingdom’s entertainment authority and is part of its sweeping public relations strategy to showcase its cultural change. But critics say it also serves a much more insidious purpose: to rehabilitate Saudi Arabia’s damaged international image after the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, and as the death toll in Yemen, where the country is at war, continues to rise.

The people that did attend have abetted that effort, according to journalists, human-rights experts and the influencers who chose not to go.

 

Posts from MDL Beast’s high-profile attendees were accompanied by the visual cues that often indicate a paid partnership. Some used the hashtags #ad or MDL Beast partners or brand ambassadors. Many tagged the festival’s Instagram account @mdlbeast in all their flattering photo captions. Festival organisers did not respond to a request from The Washington Post to confirm whether they paid influencers to promote their event.

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