A string of bands have pulled out of a UK music festival hours before they were due to perform after Irish band The Mary Wallopers said they were “cut off” for displaying a Palestinian flag.
The Last Dinner Party, Cliffords and The Academic announced on Saturday that they would no longer be performing at the Victorious festival in Portsmouth following Friday’s incident.
The Mary Wallopers shared a video on Instagram on Saturday of their performance, saying they rejected a “misleading” statement from the festival organisers and that a festival crew member had interfered with their show.
Organisers of the festival, who said The Mary Wallopers had their set cut short for using a “discriminatory” chant, have since issued an apology to the band and pledged to make “a substantial donation to humanitarian relief efforts for the Palestinian people”.
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Rock band The Last Dinner Party said they would boycott the festival in a statement shared on their Instagram page: “We are outraged by the decision made to silence The Mary Wallopers yesterday at Victorious. As a band we cannot cosign political censorship and will therefore be boycotting the festival today.”
Following The Mary Wallopers’ set, a spokesperson for Victorious 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.”
In response, The Mary Wallopers claimed the festival had 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,’” they said.
“The same crew member is later heard in the video saying ‘you aren’t playing until the flag is removed’.”
Rock band The Academic have also pulled out of the festival, saying they could not “in good conscience” perform at “a festival that silences free speech”. Irish band Cliffords said they “refuse to play if we are to be censored for showing our support to the people of Palestine”.
As the bands announced they would no longer perform at the festival, the organisers issued another statement on Instagram, which read: “The Mary Wallopers are a fantastic band and we were very much looking forward to their performance at Victorious on Friday.
“We didn’t handle the explanation of our policies sensitively or far enough in advance to allow a sensible conclusion to be reached.
“This put the band and our own team in a difficult situation which never should have arisen. We would like to sincerely apologise to all concerned.”
The Mary Wallopers received support from Irish rap trio Kneecap, who wrote in a post on X: “Speak up against genocide in England and you’re treated like a criminal. Up the Mary Wallopers.”
Last week, Kneecap’s Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, aka Mo Chara, appeared in a London court on a terror-related charge for allegedly displaying a flag of a proscribed organisation – Hizbullah, in this case ‐ at a gig they played in London in November 2024.
After three hours of legal argument the judge adjourned the case until September 26th.
Ó hAnnaidh’s first court appearance was in June, not long before Kneecap played Glastonbury. In response to the controversy, the BBC, which broadcast 90 hours of Glastonbury coverage, decided not to stream the gig live.
The BBC last month issued an apology for the divisive set by punk rap duo Bob Vylan at Glastonbury in June.
Bob Vylan performed on the West Holts Stage before Kneecap and led the crowd in chants of “Free, free Palestine” and “Death, death to the IDF”. – PA
