Wireless Festival in London cancelled after UK bars rapper Kanye West over antisemitic remarks

Festival organizers canceled the three-day outdoor event as a result of the travel ban and said those who had purchased tickets would receive a refund.

You had been granted an electronic travel authorization, which has now been withdrawn because his presence in Britain would not be “conducive to the public interest”, the BBC said, citing the Home Office.

The rapper, who changed his name in 2021, was expected to play his first UK dates in more than a decade to around 150,000 partygoers over three nights from July 10 to 12 at the Wireless Festival in London’s Finsbury Park. Other acts for the festival were not yet announced.

Event organizers were under increasing pressure from sponsors and politicians to cancel performances by the rapper, who has drawn widespread condemnation for making anti-Semitic comments and expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler.

Last year, Ye released a song called Hail Hitler and advertised a swastika T-shirt for sale on its website. The 48-year-old apologized in January with a letter, published as a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal. He said his bipolar disorder led him to “a four-month manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.”

Wireless sponsors Pepsi, Rockstar Energy and Diageo pulled out of the festival since Ye was announced as headliner.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the booking ‘very concerning’ and Health Minister Wes Streeting said on Tuesday that you should ‘absolutely not’ play the festival.

In a statement issued on Tuesday before his travel permit was revoked, Ye said he would be “grateful for the opportunity to personally meet and listen to members of the Jewish community in Britain.”

“I know words are not enough – I will have to show change through my actions,” he said.

“If you’re open, I’m here.”

Phil Rosenberg, chairman of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, had said the group would be willing to meet the musician if he withdrew from the festival.

“The Jewish community will want to see genuine repentance and change before it believes that the appropriate place to test this sincerity is the main stage of the Wireless Festival,” Rosenberg said.

Organizer Festival Republic had assisted Ye. In a statement issued Monday, director Melvin Benn urged people to offer the artist “forgiveness and hope.”

“We are not giving him a platform to glorify opinions of any kind, only to perform the songs that are currently playing on our country’s radio stations and our country’s streaming platforms that millions of people are listening to and enjoying,” the statement said.

Announcing the cancellation, Festival Republic said that “multiple stakeholders were consulted prior to booking Ye and no concerns were raised at the time”.

“Anti-Semitism in all its forms is abhorrent, and we recognize the real and personal impact these issues have had,” the report said in a statement.

“As Ye said today, he recognizes that words alone are not enough, and despite this, he still hopes to have the opportunity to start a conversation with Britain’s Jewish community.”

The Community Security Trust, which protects British Jews, said the government had made the right decision.

“Anti-Jewish hatred should have no place in society and cultural leaders have a role to play to ensure this is the case,” the report said in a statement.

“People who express sincere and meaningful remorse for past anti-Semitic behavior will always receive a sympathetic hearing from the Jewish community, but that process must precede this kind of public rehabilitation.”

A representative for Ye did not respond to a request for comment.

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