Bob Vylan speaks out after being dropped from Manchester festival after Glastonbury controversy
Bob Vylan have spoken out after being dropped from a Manchester festival due to their controversial Glastonbury slot.
The duo’s divisive performance took place at Worthy Farm on Saturday (June 28), and saw them use their platform to voice their support for Palestine, as well as calling out the BBC, Israel, the US and UK governments and more.
They projected a message reading “Free Palestine – United Nations have called it a genocide – the BBC calls it a ‘conflict’” onto the screen behind them, and also led chants of both “free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the IDF”.
Following some backlash to the set, they have now been dropped from the line-up for Manchester’s Radar Festival. They were set to appear as headliners and perform at the Victoria Warehouse site on Saturday (July 5).
The update was shared by festival organisers earlier today (July 2), when they shared a post on Instagram that simply read: “Bob Vylan will not be appearing at RADAR Festival this weekend”.
In response, Bob Vylan posted a statement on Instagram Stories, telling fans that they will be back in the city at a later date.
“Silence is not an option,” they wrote, re-sharing the post made by Radar Festival. “We will be fine, the people of Palestine are hurting. Manchester, we will be back.”
As well as the Manchester event this weekend, Bob Vylan have also been dropped from the line-up for the Kave Festival in France – with an official statement from organisers set to arrive soon, according to BBC – and owners of a music venue in Cologne have taken them off the bill for a Gogol Bordello show scheduled for September.
The slot at Glastonbury was live-streamed as part of the BBC’s coverage, and the broadcasting company has since said that it should have pulled live coverage of the group’s set.
Glastonbury organisers also issued a statement, saying it was “appalled” by their “death to the IDF” chants and adding: “Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the Festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for anti-Semitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.”
Further backlash came from Cabinet minister Wes Streeting, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy – who said that the BBC’s decision to broadcast the performance shows “a problem of leadership” – and from US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, who described the actions as a “hateful tirade” and confirmed that the band have had their US visas revoked as a result.
Bob Vylan have reportedly been dropped by their agent United Talent Agency (UTA) following the on-stage actions, and Somerset police have launched “a criminal investigation” into the set.
The duo have spoken out to defend their Worthy Farm set twice now; both saying it is vital to “teach our children to speak up for the change they want”, and reiterating that they are wanting the “dismantling of a violent military machine”, not calling for “the death of Jews or Arabs or any other race or group”.
Massive Attack have weighed in on the furore too, and urged the media to centre their attention towards “what is happening daily to the people of Gaza”, rather than focusing on the artists speaking out.
Lambrini Girls, Amyl And The Sniffers and Soft Play have also shared their backing for the band, and the latter shared a statement that read: “Again, the media is trying to distract you from the real story. The outrage sparked […] is merely a smoke screen for the lack of reporting on the destruction of the Palestinian people. They are starving children, where is the media’s outrage at Israel’s continued obliteration of a whole nation?”
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