Bob Vylan at Boardmasters 2025: “Reform UK didn’t want us here with you – but fuck Reform!”

Bob Vylan took aim at Reform UK, English foreign policy and the Israeli government during their headline set at Boardmasters 2025.

• READ MORE: Bob Vylan: “We’ve been screaming about these topics at the top of our lungs for years. Why has it taken this long?”

The punk rap duo’s spot on the bill at the Cornwall festival proved controversial, with hundreds calling for them to be dropped from the line-up following controversial comments made onstage at Glastonbury back in June.

While on stage at Worthy Farm, Bobby Vylan made headlines for leading provocative chants of “free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the IDF”. The group have since clarified that they “are not for the death of Jews or Arabs or any other race or group”.

During their set on Sunday (August 10), the band dismissed calls from far-right party Reform for them to be taken off the bill. “You know they didn’t want us here, right?” frontman Bobby Vylan said (via Cornwall Live).

Bob Vylan take to the Boardmasters stage and say “Fuck England and its terrible foreign policy.”
They told the crowd earlier on: “Reform UK didn’t want us here but we’re here. Fuck em.” pic.twitter.com/pJoWZEa9ki

— Lee Trewhela 〓〓 (@LeeTrewhela) August 10, 2025

Prior to the festival kicking off, campaign manager for Reform UK in Cornwall Andrea Hogan had warned that the band’s “toxic rhetoric” would “tarnish” the event.

“Reform UK didn’t want us here with you, Boardmasters. But fuck Reform, and here we are,” he said, admitting it was “a bit of a battle” to get there. “Some of your local MPs didn’t want us here. Some Zionist lobby groups didn’t want us here because we speak the truth. Because we will not and cannot be silenced.

“Because we dare to take this stage and say ‘Fuck England and its terrible foreign policy’. Because we dare to say ‘Fuck the Israeli Government and the atrocity, and their crimes of genocide that they are committing’ and because we dare to say ‘Free Free Palestine’.”

Vylan then led the Boardmasters crowd in a chant of support for Palestine, telling the them: “Each and every single time they will not shut us up, they can not shut us up. And we will not go silently, I tell you that.”

@ryanredman11

It’s like Glastonbury all over again #bobvylan#palastine#fyp#viral#bordmaster2025

♬ original sound – Ryan Redman

@clunkmagazine

@Bob Vylan makes a statement at Boardmasters.. @gabriella.old #music #fyp #foryou #livemusic #boardmasters #bobbyvylan #uk

♬ original sound – Clunkmagazine

The comments made at Glastonbury have so far led Bob Vylan to be dropped as Gogol Bordello’s support, axed as headliners from Manchester’s Radar festival, and triggered a police investigation into their set to decide whether any offences had been committed.

Many artists expressed support amid the controversy, with Massive Attack urging the media to instead “redirect their considerable news resource to reporting the truth of what is happening, daily, to the people of Gaza”, and Wolf Alice calling the media outrage at Bob Vylan “a distraction technique”.

Bands also boycotted Radar festival in solidarity with Bob Vylan, with Hero In Error claiming that the festival “have been made scapegoats for the bigger issue”.

Chuck D of Public Enemy also came out in support of the band, explaining: “When people say death to a country, they’re not saying death to a people. They’re saying death to imperialism, death to colonialism.

However, Blur‘s Damon Albarn called the set “one of the most spectacular misfires I’ve seen in my life.”

1/2. A little help for any other out of touch 90s musician asked about Bob Vylan at Glastonbury. Your response should probably resemble something to the affect of:
“Over 58k Palestinians killed since Oct 7th 2023.
Over 700 killed while attempting to get aid…

— Bob Vylan (@BobbyVylan) July 16, 2025

In response, Bob Vylan fired back at Albarn calling him an “out of touch ’90’s musician” and affirming: “Your response should probably resemble something to the effect of: ‘Over 58k Palestinians killed since Oct 7th 2023. Over 700 killed while attempting to get aid. Over 1400 medical workers killed since Oct 7th.

“‘Genocide is being live streamed for all to see and the UK is not simply allowing it to continue but facilitating it, along with the United States. Why are we talking about a punk band?’ End.”

More recently, the band announced that they will be headlining Burn It Down Festival this year as a “treat” for those who were upset about them playing at Boardmasters.

They shared a statement alongside the news, with the duo saying politicians and lobby groups had “cried their eyes out about us playing a festival this week in the same area, so we figured what better way to treat them than by coming back a couple weeks later to headline one”.

You can visit here for tickets.

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