Wireless Festival Cancelled After Kanye West Blocked from Entering UK
Wireless Festival Cancelled After Kanye West Blocked from Entering UK
By: Emma Saunders and Sima Kotecha, PA Media
Wireless Festival has been cancelled after headliner Kanye West was blocked from coming to the UK.
The government refused permission for West to travel to the UK after a backlash to his planned set at the London festival this summer.
For the last several years, West has caused outrage for a string of antisemitic, racist and pro-Nazi comments.
Home Office Withdraws Kanye West’s ETA
In a statement, Wireless Festival said: “The Home Office has withdrawn YE’s ETA, denying him entry into the United Kingdom. As a result, Wireless Festival is cancelled and refunds will be issued to all ticket holders.”
It continued: “As with every Wireless Festival, multiple stakeholders were consulted in advance of booking YE and no concerns were highlighted at the time.
“Antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent, and we recognise the real and personal impact these issues have had. As YE said today, he acknowledges that words alone are not enough, and in spite of this still hopes to be given the opportunity to begin a conversation with the Jewish community in the UK.”
The Home Office told the BBC the rapper made an application to travel to the UK on Monday via an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA).
It said the decision to refuse permission was made on the grounds that his presence would not be “conducive to the public good.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism Response
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The government has clearly made the right decision here. For once, when it said that antisemitism has no place in the UK, it backed up its words with action.
“Someone who has boasted of making tens of millions of dollars from selling swastika T-shirts and who released a song called ‘Heil Hitler’ just months ago clearly would not be conducive to the public good in the UK.”
It added: “Wireless Festival, in its desperate quest for profit, defended the invitation until the end. That is shameful, and its sponsors should continue to stay away.”
Kanye West Responds
West said earlier on Tuesday he “would be grateful” to meet members of the Jewish community in the UK after controversy over his booking.
In a statement, the rapper, now known as Ye, said he had been “following the conversation around Wireless” and offered to meet representatives of the community in person “to listen.”
“I know words aren’t enough,” added the star, who has a history of making antisemitic comments. “I’ll have to show change through my actions. If you’re open, I’m here.”
Board of Deputies Responds
A Board of Deputies spokesperson told the BBC: “Neither the Board of Deputies nor, we understand, the Jewish Leadership Council has refused any request to meet with the Wireless festival organisers.
“When the Board of Deputies received a letter from Melvin Benn on 6 April, proposing to meet, in response to a letter we sent setting out our concerns, we responded positively. In any event we are clear that the invitation to Kanye West to perform should be rescinded.”
That decision has now been taken out of West’s hands, and those of Festival Republic, the company behind Wireless, as well as other major UK festivals including Reading and Leeds.
Wireless Festival Boss Melvin Benn Speaks Out
Its managing director, Melvin Benn, had hinted that West’s appearance may be in jeopardy when speaking to BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday morning.
“It may be that the home secretary does rescind his visa… if she does, the issue is over,” he told the Today programme.
Benn, who is a major UK music industry figure and event promoter, agreed that West’s past behaviour was “abhorrent” and “disgusting.”
But the promoter highlighted the role that the star’s mental health may have played, and asked for understanding.
“Mental health is not something that disappears overnight,” Benn said. “People suffer psychotic behaviour, suffer bipolar behaviour, for many, many years… And I think people are forgetting that.”
But Jewish groups criticised Benn’s support for the star.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said that the Wireless boss’s stance would “not reassure many within the Jewish or other communities.”
In a statement, the board added: “It has been less than a year since Kanye West released a song entitled ‘Heil Hitler,’ the culmination of three years of appalling antisemitism.
“He also made a number of deeply offensive comments about the black community, saying that the 400-year experience of slavery was ‘like a choice’.”
“We are willing to meet Kanye West as part of his journey of healing, but only after he agrees not to play the Wireless Festival this year.”
Political Reaction
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer previously criticised West’s booking, commenting over the weekend: “Antisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted firmly wherever it appears.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting echoed those sentiments on Tuesday, calling West’s apology “mealy-mouthed and self-serving”, and accusing Wireless of offering the rapper a “fig leaf of credibility.”
“If he wants forgiveness, it’s not my forgiveness he needs,” Streeting told Radio 4. “It’s the forgiveness of the Jewish communities and I don’t think he’s done anything to earn it.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said West was “guilty of appalling antisemitic and pro-Nazi comments” and urged home secretary Shabana Mahmood to use her powers under the Immigration Act to refuse him a visa.
Additional reporting by PA Media. This is a developing story.
