Irish band The Mary Wallopers had their set cut while performing at the Portsmouth festival on Friday after bringing a Palestine flag on stage
Victorious Festival have put out a new statement after The Mary Wallopers had their set cut following a dispute about the Irish band having a Palestinian flag on stage on Friday (August 22).
The festival had put out a statement which said it was the “artist’s decision to stop the song”, claiming the sound was only cut “after the band used a chant which is widely understood to have a discriminatory context.” The festival also claimed the band had warning of their no-flags policy.
In retaliation, The Mary Wallopers put up a lengthy post on Instagram that read: “Yesterday, a famine was declared in Gaza, where at least 65 people were killed by Israeli attacks, all the while Israel pushed ahead with plans to split the West Bank in two.
“These are the important facts about yesterday. We are uploading this video so everybody can see @victoriousfestival cut our gig short for having a Palestinian flag on stage.
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“The festival have released a misleading statement to the press claiming they cut our sound because of a discriminatory chant and not the band’s call to Free Palestine.
“Our video clearly shows a Victorious crew member coming on stage, interfering with our show, removing the flag from the stage and then the sound being cut following a chant of “Free Palestine”. The same crew member is later heard in the video saying “you aren’t playing until the flag is removed”.
They continued: “We completely reject Victorious’ portrayal of today’s events and request that they retract their statement immediately. We know this is getting some attention and we don’t want another distraction which takes attention away from the genocide that is happening in Palestine. FREE PALESTINE.”
Now Victorious Festival has released a new statement in which they’ve apologised for the incident. They said: “The Mary Wallopers are a fantastic band and we were very much looking forward to their performance at Victorious on Friday.
“We are in the business of putting on great shows, not cutting them off and this is the last thing we wanted, for the band, their fans and ourselves.
“We didn’t handle the explanation of our policies sensitively or far enough in advance to allow a sensible conclusion to be reached.
“This put the band and our own team in a difficult situation which never should have arisen. We would like to sincerely apologise to all concerned.”
Continuing to clarify that them cutting the performance wasn’t down to political reasons, they added: “We absolutely support the right of artists to freely express their views from the stage, within the law and the inclusive nature of the event.
“Our policy of not allowing flags of any kind, which has been in place for many years for wider event management and safety reasons, is not meant to compromise that right.
“We accept that, although mics remained live for longer, sound for The Mary Wallopers’ audience was cut as described in the band’s video, and that comments after that were not audible to the public.”
The festival concluded by telling their followers that they will be making a “substantial donation to humanitarian relief efforts for the Palestinian people” as a way of an apology.
After the band was cut, fellow musicians The Last Dinner Party announced they were boycotting the festival as they pulled out of their performance.
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