Political pressure, police attention, press criticism. Glastonbury finds itself in a difficult position this morning, after the on-stage comments by Bob Vylan and Kneecap.
Organiser Emily Eavis has issued a statement saying she’s “appalled” by the chants that took place on the West Holts Stage yesterday during Bob Vylan’s set, and reminding people there is no place for “anti-semitism, hate speech or incitement to violence” at Glastonbury.
The festival has a history of political protest. In the 1980s is was aligned to the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament and there were, undoubtedly, chants about Margaret Thatcher that used similar language to Kneecap’s anti-Starmer protest.
In the following decade, the festival got into trouble over drug use and violence. Riots broke out in 1990 amid a dispute between travellers and security. Petrol bombs were thrown, resulting in £50,000 of damage.
Five years later, a gunman shot five people in the audience, allegedly after a dispute between rival drug gangs.
The erection of the festival’s security fence helped end those problems; and in recent years the event has been relatively trouble-free, even hosting politicians of all stripes for debates and talks on the festival’s political stages.
The tradition of championing free speech remains, but organisers say yesterday’s comments “crossed a line
