Glastonbury Festival is catching heat over incendiary comments by recent performers. These remarks, made last week at a Brooklyn event, have sparked international outcry from activists, elected officials, and citizens. During the festival, Bob Vylan led chants of “death, death to the IDF” at the West Holts stage on Saturday afternoon, prompting the organizers to express their outrage. The festival featured nearly 4,000 performances, making it a significant cultural event, yet these incidents have overshadowed the artistic achievements celebrated over the weekend.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper acted swiftly to denounce the attacks. Starmer criticized the antisemitic messaging at Glastonbury, calling the chants “appalling.” Cooper has previously made bold moves to suppress Palestine Action. He plans to designate the organization as a terrorist organization, sparking renewed debate over the right to free speech and where society should draw the line on prohibited speech at public events.
Emily Eavis, one of the Glastonbury festival’s organizers, participated in the condemnation as well. She issued a statement expressing that “there is no excuse for this kind of appalling hate speech.” Eavis insisted Glastonbury is on the dearest side, against all war and all terrorism. He proclaimed the festival’s unwavering devotion to spreading hope, togetherness, peace, and love.
That outrage boiled over when Nadine Shah took the stage. She went on to read an open letter, signed by Artists for Palestine UK, that expressed unequivocal support for Palestine Action. The letter went further than most in drawing the line against the federal government’s designation of non-violent direct action as terrorism. It labeled this decision an “abuse of language” and a wholesale assault on democracy. Shah highlighted that “sometimes we have to get our message across with violence because that’s the only language some people speak, unfortunately.”
At the same time, Avon and Somerset police have been investigating both Bob Vylan’s and Kneecap’s sets. The latter crew continued in much the same fashion, causing fears over their material to grow. Even better, the BBC had originally planned to broadcast Kneecap’s set live. They took it down from their own streaming platforms, worried that it would cross their editorial guidelines about partisanship and neutrality.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Embassy in London has waded into the debate, denouncing the condemnation of Bob Vylan’s performance. A spokesperson stated that “chants such as ‘Death to the IDF’ and ‘From the river to the sea’ are slogans that advocate for the dismantling of the state of Israel and implicitly call for the elimination of Jewish self-determination.” They stated that freedom of expression must be a fundamental pillar. That needs to be weighed, too, with the affirmative duty to stop incitement and hatred.
Vylan defended his turf. He contended that at times, rioting is the only way you can get a message across. It’s no surprise then that his remarks have garnered so much eye-popping attention for his performance. They point to larger concerns about freedom of speech at public events.
The ongoing fiasco has, not surprisingly, resulted in bitter and predictable division between various actors within civil society in the UK. Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting described the chanting as “appalling.” He was simply amplifying calls from many quarters that we can no longer allow hate speech to flourish on any public square.