Bob Vylan ‘Death to the IDF’ Chants Leave Glastonbury ‘Appalled,’ Festival Says They ‘Crossed a Line’
Glastonbury Festival has issued a statement saying that one of the performing acts “crossed a line” during their set by leading anti-IDF chants.
Punk duo Bob Vylan appeared on Saturday (June 28) before Kneecap on the West Holts stage. During their set, they instigated chants of “Free Palestine” and “Death to the IDF,” in reference to the Israel Defense Forces, and displayed messages criticising the BBC, the festival’s official media partner.
In the week leading up to the festival, campaigners had called for Kneecap’s set to be canceled, owing to the terror offense MC Mo Chara was recently charged with. A number of acts threw their weight behind the group leading up the festival, including Fontaines D.C. and Massive Attack.
Kneecap’s set was not televised on the iPlayer stream, but Bob Vylan’s performance was broadcast live. The BBC reports that Somerset and Avon Police are assessing the chants by Vylan. A BBC spokesperson told The Independent that “some of the comments made during Bob Vylan’s set were 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. We have no plans to make the performance available on demand.”
The festival has also shared an official response to the chants led by Vylan, saying it is “appalled” by his comments.
“Glastonbury Festival was created in 1970 as a place for people to come together and rejoice in music, the arts and the best of human endeavour. As a festival, we stand against all forms of war and terrorism. We will always believe in – and actively campaign for – hope, unity, peace and love,” the statement read.
“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.
“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.”
Wes Streeting, the government’s health secretary, said that the “BBC and Glastonbury have got questions to answer about how we saw such a spectacle on our screens,” he told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News. “But I also think it’s a pretty shameless publicity stunt, which I don’t really want to give too much indulgence to for that reason.”
During Kneecap’s set, the trio led a “F— Keir Starmer chant,” after the U.K. prime minister said it was “not appropriate” to be playing the festival amidst Mo Chara’s ongoing terror case. Read the full report from the show here. The festival concludes Sunday evening (June 29) with a headline set from Olivia Rodrigo.
Thomas Smith
Billboard
