Yesterday, Irish folk group the Mary Wallopers had their set at UK's Victorious Festival cut short after expressing support for Palestine with a "Free Palestine" chant and a Palestinian flag. Now, the Last Dinner Party have withdrawn in protest.
"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," the Last Dinner Party wrote on Instagram, continuing:
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.
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.
Free Palestine.
After the incident transpired, the Mary Wallopers posted a video to show what happened and clarified that the festival "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." They continued:
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”.
We completely reject Victorious’ portrayal of today’s events and request that they retract their statement immediately.
We know this is getting some attention and we don’t want another distraction which takes attention away from the genocide that is happening in Palestine.
Vampire Weekend also addressed the controversy during their Saturday night set. “If someone was punished for flying a flag, that is wrong and they deserve an apology,” said Ezra Koenig. “The terrible suffering of the Palestinian people deserves all of our sympathy.”
The festival has since apologized, saying they didn't "handle the explanation of [its] policies sensitively or far enough in advance to allow a sensible conclusion to be reached." Organizers added that they would make a "substantial donation to humanitarian relief efforts for the Palestinian people."
