Malaysia’s Good Vibes festival take legal action against The 1975
After The 1975 staged a protest against Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws during their headline set at Good Vibes festival last month, legal action is now being pursued against the band.
Homosexuality is illegal in the Asian country, and in the middle of the performance, frontman Matty Healy kissed Ross MacDonald. Before the act, he told the crowd: “When we were booking shows, I wasn’t looking into it. I don’t see the fucking point, right? I do not see the point of inviting the 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with.”
Healy continued: “Unfortunately, you don’t get a set of loads of uplifting songs because I’m [expletive] furious. And that’s not fair on you because you’re not representative of your government. Because you’re young people, and I’m sure a lot of you are gay and progressive and cool.”
Future Sound Asia, the company behind the Good Vibes festival, has begun legal action against the group and has sent a Letter Of Claim. The document states The 1975 have been asked to accept liability and pay damages to Future Sound Asia. If they don’t oblige, they plan to take the case to the Courts of England.
It reads: “FSA would like to reiterate their strong disapproval of the Band’s behaviour during their performance at GVF2023. In particular, lead singer Matthew Timothy Healy’s use of abusive language, equipment damage, and indecent stage behaviour not only flagrantly breached local guidelines and Malaysian laws but also tarnished the reputation of the 10-year-old festival.”
The Letter of Claim also claims The 1975 have “tarnished” the reputation of Good Vibes, and states the band “intentionally contravened the agreement they had with FSA” which led to the cancellation of the festival. They state it caused “significant financial losses for FSA and negatively impact[ed] local artists and businesses that depended on the festival’s success – affecting the livelihoods of many Malaysians.”
Following the show in Malaysia, The 1975 cancelled planned performances across Asia in Taiwan and Vietnam. Explaining their decision, they said in a statement: “The band never take the decision to cancel a show lightly and had been eagerly looking forward to playing for fans in Jakarta and Taipei but unfortunately, due to current circumstances, it is impossible to proceed with the scheduled shows.”
The 1975 are yet to respond to the Letter of Claim.
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