The Mary Wallopers, an Irish band performing at the Portsmouth festival on Friday, were forced to cut their set because they had staged a Palestinian flag.
Following a dispute over the Irish band’s use of a Palestinian flag on the stage on Friday (August 22), Victorious Festival issued a new statement following The Mary Wallopers’ set was cut.
The festival had released a statement claiming the “artist’s decision to stop the song” and that the sound was only removed “after the band used a chant that is widely understood to have a discriminatory context.” Additionally, the band was warned about their no-flags policy, according to the festival.
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 crucial details of yesterday. This video was uploaded so that everyone could see how short a Palestinian flag stood for at our show.
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The festival responded to the press with a derogatory statement, saying that they cut our sound because of a racist chant and not because the band had called for Free Palestine.
Our video clearly depicts a Victorious crew member entering the stage, interfering with our show, taking the stage off, and then cutting the sound as a result of a chant for “Free Palestine.” Later, the same crew member can be heard saying, “You’re not playing until the flag is removed.”
They continued, “We completely reject Victorious’s portrayal of the events of today, and we request that they retract their statement right away. We are aware that this is receiving some attention, so we don’t want another diversion that distracts from the ongoing genocide in Palestine. FREE PALESTINE
Victorious Festival has since offered an apology for the incident in a new statement. They continued, “We were very much looking forward to The Mary Wallopers’ performance at Victorious on Friday.
This is the last thing we wanted, for the band, their fans, and ourselves, because we are in the business of putting on great shows and not cutting them off.
“We didn’t approach the explanation of our policies with care or care enough to reach a justifiable conclusion.”
The band and our own team were in a precarious position because of this. We apologize to everyone who is involved.
They continued to state that the decision to cut the performance wasn’t due to political reasons, saying, “We firmly support the right of artists to freely express their opinions from the stage, within the law, and given the event’s inclusive nature.
Our policy of allowing flags of any kind, which has been in place for broader event management and safety reasons, is not intended to compromise that right.
We accept that The Mary Wallopers’ audience received cut audio despite having the microphones remain active for longer, as the band’s video claims, and that comments made after that were audible.
As a way of apologie, the festival’s supporters were informed that they would be contributing a “substantial donation to humanitarian relief efforts for the Palestinian people.”
The Last Dinner Party, a collaboration of musicians who were cut after the band was cut, announced they were boycotting the festival after giving a statement.
Source: Mirror
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