Glastonbury organizers have responded to controversy over punk duo Bob Vylan‘s set on Saturday, during which singer Bobby Vylan led the crowd in several chants including “death, death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces].”
A statement shared on Sunday morning by Glastonbury Festival’s official Instagram account as well as by organizer Emily Eavis reads: “With almost 4,000 performances at Glastonbury 2025, there will inevitably be artists and speakers appearing on our stages whose views we do not share, and a performer’s presence here should never be seen as a tacit endorsement of their opinions and beliefs.”
The statement continues, “However, we are appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan yesterday. Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.”
Bob Vylan played the West Holts stage on Saturday afternoon to a packed crowd, just ahead of Kneecap’s anticipated set. While Kneecap’s performance was not aired on the BBC after recent controversy over their political statements — leading to member Mo Chara recently being charged under the U.K.’s Terrorism Act — Bob Vylan’s set was shown live. In addition to the “death to the IDF” chant, Bob Vylan also led the crowd in chanting “free, free Palestine” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine must be free.”
In response, the BBC called the comments made during the set “deeply offensive.”
“During this live stream on iPlayer, which reflected what was happening on stage, a warning was issued on screen about the very strong and discriminatory language,” the statement continued. “We have no plans to make the performance available on demand.”
Kneecap also caused controversy with comments during their set, including chants of “fuck Keir Starmer” and “free Palestine.” Though Kneecap did not explicitly address the BBC’s decision not to air their performance, looking out at all the Palestinian flags in the audience, Chara said: “The BBC editor is going to have some fucking job.”
The Avon and Somerset police on Saturday said that they were looking into comments made during both Bob Vylan and Kneecap’s sets. “Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offenses may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation,” they said.
The U.K. government also condemned Bob Vylan’s comments, telling the BBC: “The culture secretary has spoken to the BBC director general to seek an urgent explanation about what due diligence it carried out ahead of the Bob Vylan performance, and welcomes the decision not to re-broadcast it on BBC iPlayer.”
Representatives for Bob Vylan did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
See the full statement below.
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