Milkshake Festival Adds Azealia Banks, Drops Her After Backlash

Earlier this week, Amsterdam's Milkshake Festival added Azealia Banks to its lineup. Now, only a few days later, the controversial rapper has been dropped from the queer-focused electronic event due to backlash over her long history of saying offensive things about the LGBTQ+ community, including using homophobic slurs and posting transphobic things on social media.

When Milkshake first acknowledged the backlash on Wednesday (Feb. 5), they shared:

WE HEAR YOU

Dear everyone,

This is a message to let you know that we hear you. Your reactions to the announcement of Azealia Banks as headliner for Milkshake Festival have not gone unnoticed. We have read all of your emails. We have read all of your DM’s. We have read all of your reactions and posts. We will take some time to reflect on what happened the past 24 hours and we will update you as soon as possible.

Over the last thirteen years, our mission has always been to unite people. We try to stimulate looking past our differences and to create a place that celebrates the uniqueness of every individual. Anybody who has love in their hearts is welcome at Milkshake. We are, and always will be, for all who love.

Nevertheless, we strive to be a place where everyone, and especially the most vulnerable and historically marginalized among us, feel free to express themselves.

The immense amount of reactions to our announcement shows us that there is a clear divide among our followers. On the one hand, we have fans that have been moved by Azealia’s music and would love to see her perform. On the other hand, we have people who feel unsafe because of her comments on social media.

We take responsibility for not fully considering the potential impact of this booking.

Please know that all of our visitors are equally important to us. We simply would not exist if it wasn’t for you. When booking artists, we focus on the contribution their music has made to spaces that matter to us. But their public persona should not go completely unnoticed. We try to create a platform for artists who haven’t always had equal access to popular spaces. We strive to pay homage to the roots of club culture, a community that has always been at the forefront in fighting for equality.

We have reached out to the management of Azealia Banks to get a clear statement. Please allow us some time to manage this situation.

We hope we have your trust in making the best decision for the entire Milkshake community.

Love,

Team Milkshake.

Then, today, they posted an update that Banks would no longer be performing:

UPDATE

Dear everyone,

This is an update to inform you that Azealia Banks will not be performing at Milkshake Festival 2025. It is clear to us that we made a mistake and that we have overlooked essential information. We sincerely apologize for this. In correction of our previous update: this statement reflects only our standpoints as an organization, not that of Azealia Banks’ management.

The safety of our visitors, our team, the artists, and crew will always be our main priority. Furthermore, we will assess our initial social media response for learnings and improvements.
We know that this decision will also affect a lot of Milkshake visitors who were looking forward to the show. We understand that, and we want to assure you we have taken as many viewpoints as possible into account.

We care deeply about our audience and that we will remain committed to our mission of spreading love and unity.

For all who love,

Team Milkshake

In an X thread on Tuesday (Feb. 4), the same day she was added to the festival, Banks walked back some of her old transphobic comments, perhaps anticipating the blowback. She tagged famously transphobic author J. K. Rowling and wrote, "thanks for the follow and I love you down sis, but transwomen are not a threat to your femininity. You are really too rich and legendary to keep spewing the same stuff over and over and over." She continued:

The REAL problem in the world is crimes against children. Adults are gonna be who they wanna be and sleep with who they want to. And I’m not even sure trans people make up more than like 10% of the global population. My brother is trans, I have witnessed first hand the type of misery, pain, ostracism, suicide attempts, unnecessary and unwarranted abuse my mother doled out to my brother, the discomfort with his body - it’s not a mental illness it’s a spiritual thing. One would assume that you of all people who have written books about magic and esoteric things would be able to comprehend and understand how states of consciousness vary in a human being. It’s been YEARS sis. Adults are fucking, chances are the man you are dating or will date is attracted to transwomen and also thinks about sucking other men’s cocks. Being in protest about it is not going to change reality. You are too paid and too accomplished to be worried about what adults choose to do in their sex lives. Repeat the “science” all you want- not a single transwoman will debate you about that. but I really do think it’s a front for some weird inferiority thing that’s truly just in your mind. I Say this with lots of love and respect. Xx

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