Mass music festival boycott in UK after band's set cut short over Palestine flag

Several artists boycotted and pulled out of Victorious Festival in Portsmouth, UK, this weekend over a set that was cut short.

On Friday (22 August), Irish band The Mary Wallopers made it halfway through their opening song when the sound was cut by the festival organisers. The Palestinian flag on stage with them was taken away, despite the crowd standing by the band and leading chants of “Free, free Palestine”.

A festival spokesperson said: "We spoke to the artist before the performance regarding the festival's long-standing policy of not allowing flags of any kind at the event, but that we respect their right to express their views during the show. Although a flag was displayed on stage contrary to our policy, and this was raised with the artist's crew, the show was not ended at this point, and it was the artist's decision to stop the song."

It turns out that this statement was misleading.

The Mary Wallopers updated fans on Saturday with an Instagram post reading: “Yesterday, a famine was declared in Gaza, where at least 65 people were killed by Israeli attacks, all the while Israel pushed ahead with plans to split the West Bank in two. These are the important facts about yesterday.”

The band were referring to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the world's leading authority on food crises, officially announcing last Friday that Gaza City is gripped by famine and that it is likely to spread across the territory without a ceasefire and an end to restrictions on humanitarian aid.

The band then added, regarding the festival’s statement: “The festival have released a misleading statement to the press claiming they cut our sound because of a discriminatory chant and not the band’s call to Free Palestine. Our video clearly shows a Victorious crew member coming on stage, interfering with our show, removing the flag from the stage and then the sound being cut following a chant of ‘Free Palestine’. The same crew member is later heard in the video saying, ‘you aren’t playing until the flag is removed’.”

Following this incident, a number of artists announced they would not be playing their programmed sets at Victorious, including The Last Dinner Party, Cliffords and The Academic.

“We are outraged by the decision made to silence The Mary Wallopers yesterday at Victorious,” The Last Dinner Party wrote in a statement. “As a band we cannot cosign political censorship and will therefore be boycotting the festival today.”

They added: “As Gazans are deliberately plunged into catastrophic famine after two years of escalating violence, it is urgent and obvious that artists use their platform to draw attention to the cause. To see an attempt to direct attention away from the genocide in order to maintain an apolitical image is immensely disappointing.”

“Throughout this summer we have used our stages to encourage our audience to donate even a drink’s worth of money to Medical Aid for Palestinians, and today we urge you more than ever to do the same,” they continued. “We are so deeply sorry to our fans who were looking forward to seeing us today, and we are devastated to be put in this position that upsets both us and you.”

The Academic said they “can’t in good conscience stand up and play at a festival that silences free speech and the right to express your views”, while Cliffords said: “We refuse to play if we are to be censored for showing our support to the people of Palestine”. 

Faced with the boycott, the festival posted a second statement saying that they “didn’t handle the explanation of our policies sensitively or far enough in advance to allow a sensible conclusion to be reached.”

They added: “We would like to sincerely apologise to all concerned. We absolutely support the right of artists to freely express their views from the stage, within the law and the inclusive nature of the event. Our policy of not allowing flags of any kind, which has been in place for many years for wider event management and safety reasons, is not meant to compromise that right. We accept that, although mics remained live for longer, sound for The Mary Wallopers’ audience was cut as described in the band’s video and that comments after that were not audible to the public.” 

The festival further apologised and pledged to make “a substantial donation to humanitarian relief efforts for the Palestinian people.” 

For context, the Victorious festival is operated by Superstruct Entertainment, which is owned by global investment firm KKR.  

Many artists like Massive Attack and Brian Eno spoke out against KKR earlier this year, signing an open letter that urged Field Day festival to distance itself from the firm, over its alleged stakes in weapons manufacturing companies and Israel corporations operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. 

“KKR invests billions of pounds in companies which, for example, develop Israeli underground data centres, and advertise real estate on illegally occupied land in Israeli settlements in the West Bank,” stated the letter. “While we understand that this acquisition was not the choice of Field Day, it nonetheless means that the festival is now implicated in the crimes against humanity of apartheid and genocide.” 

Elsewhere, Kneecap has routinely been at the centre of much debate over freedom of speech and how some festivals have failed to protect artists’ right to free expression.  

The Irish rappers have repeatedly used their platform to speak out not against the Jewish people but against Israel's war in Gaza. Regardless, many politicians have tried to remove the band from festival line-ups this summer, with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán going so far as to ban the group from the country for three years. 

Kneecap has consistently denied accusations of anti-Semitism, claiming that those attacking the band “weaponize” the false accusation to “distract, confuse, and provide cover for genocide.”