Irish rappers Kneecap perform controversial Glastonbury set / Photo: Oli SCARFF - AFP
Irish rappers Kneecap perform controversial Glastonbury set
Irish rap trio Kneecap staged a defiant performance at Britain's Glastonbury Festival Saturday, days after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said they should not be performing there.
The group has made headlines in recent months with their pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel stance, and one of their members has been charged with a "terror" offence for allegedly supporting Hezbollah.
"Glastonbury, I'm a free man", said Liam O'Hanna, who appeared in court earlier this month accused of having displayed a Hezbollah flag while saying "Up Hamas, Up Hezbollah" at a London concert last year.
The Iran-backed Lebanese force Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas are banned in the UK, and it is an offence to express support for them.
O'Hanna, known by his stage name Mo Chara, has denied the charge.
"This situation can be quite stressful but it's minimal compared to what the Palestinian people are (facing)," O'Hanna, wearing his trademark keffiyah and black sunglasses told thousands of cheering supporters, many waving Palestinian flags.
O'Hanna also gave "a shout out" to Palestine Action Group, which interior minister Yvette Cooper announced last week would become a banned group under the Terrorism Act of 2000.
- 'Playing characters' -
Fellow band member DJ Provai wore a t-shirt dedicated to the campaign group, whose prohibition comes after its activists broke into a British Royal Air Force base and vandalised two planes.
Before Kneecap took to the stage, rap punk duo Bob Vylan led the crowd in chants of "Death, death to the IDF", a reference to the Israeli Defence Forces.
Later, Kneecap led the crowd chanting abuse directed at Starmer.
Formed in 2017, Kneecap is no stranger to controversy. To their fans they are daring provocateurs who stand up to the establishment; to their detractors they are dangerous extremists.
Their Irish and English lyrics are filled with references to drugs, they repeatedly clashed with the UK's previous Conservative government and have vocally opposed British rule in Northern Ireland.
The group apologised this year after a 2023 video emerged appearing to show one singer calling for the death of British Conservative MPs.
Two MPs have been murdered in Britain in the past nine years and many of them worry about their safety.
But Kneecap deny the terrorism charge and say the video featuring the Hezbollah flag has been taken out of context.
Asked whether he regretted waving it, and other comments caught on camera, Chara told the Guardian in an interview published Friday: "Why should I regret it? It was a joke -- we're playing characters."
- Glastonbury rejects criticism -
Since O'Hanna was charged, the group has been pulled from a slew of summer gigs, including a Scottish festival appearance and various performances in Germany.
But Glastonbury organisers defied Starmer who had said it was not "appropriate" for Kneecap to perform at Glastonbury, one of the country's biggest and most famous music festivals.
"People that don't like the politics of the event can go somewhere else," Michael Eavis, co-founder of the festival said in AN article published in a free newspaper for festival-goers.
Public broadcaster the BBC faced pressure not to air the concert.
In statement Saturday, a spokesperson for the broadcaster said the performance would not be shown live but would likely be available on-demand afterwards.
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