[News] Artists speak up against genocide in Gaza at Europe’s music festivals

[Anti-Imperialist News]

peoplesdispatch.org
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/06/30/artists-speak-up-against-genocide-in-gaza-at-europes-music-festivals/>
Artists speak up against genocide in Gaza at Europe’s music festivals
Ana Vračar
June 30, 2025
------------------------------
[image: Glastonbury-Kneecap-Derry-IPSC-e1751287572536.jpg]

Festival participants wave Palestinian flags, Glastonbury Festival 2025.
Source: IPSC/X

As Europe’s summer music festival season rolls out, mainstream media and
governments are struggling to keep Palestine solidarity off the stage. In
its coverage of Glastonbury Festival, the BBC focused on censoring
<https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/clear-example-political-censorship>the
Irish rap group Kneecap over their staunch pro-Palestinian stance – only to
be met by a wave of artists who used their platform to call for a free
Palestine and to demand broadcasters share real news about the Israeli
genocide in Gaza.

Among them was the British duo Bob Vylan, who led the crowd in chanting
“Free, free Palestine” and “Death, death to the IDF,” denouncing war crimes
committed by the Israeli army, including the starvation of children
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/05/13/experts-say-gaza-needs-more-than-statements-to-survive-israels-brutal-blockade/>
and the killing of civilians in humanitarian aid lines
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/06/17/israel-continues-massacring-people-at-ghf-distribution-centers-in-gaza/>.
The BBC has since announced it would edit their performance on streaming
platforms, festival organizers
<https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/bob-vylan-reacts-chant-controversy/>
distanced themselves from the chant, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer
<https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/starmer-bbc-glastonbury-bbc-idf-israel-b2779142.html>
labeled it hate speech. But the reaction among festivalgoers and artists
has been starkly different.
*Governments refuse to admit **status quo** has changed*

Many artists insisted that the real issue is not on-stage speech but
European governments’ complicity in genocide, echoing reactions to earlier
attacks on Kneecap, who faced cancellations following their Coachella
performance and outspoken solidarity with Palestine.

Australian band Amyl and the Sniffers condemned the backlash against Bob
Vylan and Kneecap, saying authorities are attempting to frame these as
isolated cases – “a couple of ‘bad bands’” – rather than acknowledging the
growing anti-genocide anger among the public. “Trying to make it look like
Bob [Vylan] and Kneecap are one-offs, instead of admitting that the *status
quo* has shifted majorly and people are desperate for our governments to
listen,” the band posted on social media
<https://www.instagram.com/amylandthesniffers/>. Throughout the weekend,
they pointed out, musicians raised their voices for Gaza, cheered on by
audiences that waved Palestinian flags.
Bob Vylan performance at Glastonbury 2025. Source: Ciaran Tierney/X

While Kneecap <https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4k4xnlj8qo>and Bob Vylan
<https://apnews.com/article/glastonbury-bob-vylan-israel-police-d7faf32c07b2ccadf25b29d57a530486>
both face legal action over their expressions of solidarity, their
determination to challenge the *status quo* is unshaken. Watching what the
music industry tried to do to Kneecap after Coachella, DJ Toddla T
<http://wrote/> added, “has been like watching a lightweight boxer against
a heavyweight, but holding it. Exhausted, but refusing to fall.”

“Kneecap represents community, which is why they can’t be taken down
despite many attempts,” he added.

Taking the stage at Glastonbury, Kneecap voiced support
<https://x.com/IrishUnity/status/1939067183105220781>for Palestine Action,
a direct action group currently under threat of being banned under the UK’s
anti-terror legislation. “Palestine Action is not arming the genocide and
Israel – that’s Keir Starmer and the British government, who should be
proscribed,” the group said
<https://x.com/Pal_action/status/1939001063102665182>.

“Kneecap, along with many artists and celebrities and Parliamentarians of
different stripes, have joined thousands of people across the country
saying ‘We are all Palestine Action,’ showing how unworkable the
government’s threat to ban Palestine Action is,” Palestine Action
spokespeople added
<https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/clear-example-political-censorship>
.

“We just want to stop people from being murdered,” Kneecap members told *The
Guardian*
<https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jun/27/kneecap-on-palestine-protest-and-their-satirical-intent>
before the festival. “There’s people starving to death, people being bombed
every day. That’s the stuff we need to talk about, not fucking artists.”
*Liberating Europe from imperialism is part of the struggle*

The genocide in Gaza was also front and center at other European festivals.
At Zagreb’s InMusic Festival, bands like Fontaines D.C. and Massive Attack
displayed Palestinian flags and screened footage from Gaza – images that
were omitted from mainstream media coverage of the event. Other artists
also emphasized the importance of linking global and local struggles in
confronting Western imperialism.

During his performance, Nigerian musician Seun Kuti
<https://www.instagram.com/p/DLUba8WtpMK/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_video_watch_again>
offered guidance to Europe’s youth. “I know you want to free Palestine,
free Congo, free Sudan, free Iran. It’s a new one every week,” he said.
“Free Europe. Free Europe from right-wing extremism, from fascism, from
racism. Free Europe from imperialism. When you do this job – as soon as you
do this job – Gaza will be free. Congo will be free. Sudan will be free.”
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