Kneecap presence at Rock en Seine leads to funding cut
Rock en Seine, one of France’s most popular music festivals held just outside of Paris, has suffered a huge chunk of funding being cut due to their decision to keep Irish rap trio Kneecap on their line-up.
The festival attracts more than 150,000 music lovers yearly. This year, it will run from August 20th to August 24th and include headliners like Chappell Roan, Doechii, Queens of the Stone Age, and Fontaines DC. On the Sunday, Irish rap trio Kneecap will perform, despite the ongoing terror charge against their member, Mo Chara. In fact, the singer will be spending the first day of the festival appear in London’s Magistrate Court at a hearing.
Chara is facing the charges after footage from 2024 showed the rapper yelling “Up Hamas! Up Hezbollah!”. He is currently on unconditional bail. However, the Metropolitan police confirmed that no charges would be brought against them relating to comments in which he allegedly said “Kill your MP,” which surfaced from a 2023 show.
Despite the likes of the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer deeming their platforming “not appropriate”, Rock en Seine have decided to keep the band on the line-up. As a result, Rock en Seine suddenly saw its budget cut by €40,000. The Saint-Cloud town council decided to do this because of the Irish band’s presence.
Mayor of Saint-Cloud, Éric Berdoati, voted to withdraw the subsidy, saying: “We subsidise cultural initiatives, not political ones. When it’s no longer in line with our objectives, we don’t fund it.”
In response, the festival’s director, Mathieu Ducos, commented, “When we programmed them last autumn, they weren’t the talk of the town, except for good reasons. I hope that the history we’ve managed to build and weave together doesn’t end with this dispute and the vision we have of this group.”
The proposed withdrawal of funds will not cause too much harm to the festival organisers, as their budget this year is around €17 million. Only 3 per cent of that comes from subsidies.
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