Reading Festival 2024: Kneecap express support for Palestine
During their set on the Main Stage at Reading Festival on August 23rd, Irish trio Kneecap reiterated their support for Palestine and also spoke out against the recent far-right riots.
While the first day of Leeds Festival has been derailed by Storm Lillian, which has caused a huge number of sets to be cancelled, Reading Festival has gone ahead smoothly. Before welcoming Kneecap to the Main Stage, Seb Lowe and Dasha with the day set to be rounded out by The K’s, Neck Deep, Spiritbox, Two Door Cinema Club and Blink-182.
Kneecap, who released their debut album Fine Art on June 14th, have not only earned a reputation as one of the most raucous live acts on the circuit, but also for speaking out against injustice, as they did once again at Reading Festival.
Móglaí Bap, who wore a ‘Refugees Welcome’ t-shirt, told the crowd, “The Irish have emigrated all over the world and have been welcome.” On the recent riots across the UK, he added, “Fuck that far-right shite.”
Over the last several months, more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in response to the October 7th terrorist attack by Hamas, and over two million people have been displaced from their homes with Gaza turned to rubble, which Kneecap also addressed.
“But there’s another occupation happening right now,” Bap added (via NME). “I don’t know if the BBC’s gonna show this, but there’s a worse occupation happening right now in Palestine. They’re bombing Palestinians from the sky; they’re bombing refugee camps; they’re bombing hospitals.”
Furthermore, Kneecap led the crowd through a rendition of ‘Free! Free! Palestine!’ midway through their set.
During an exclusive interview with Far Out earlier this year, Bap said of his reasoning for using his voice to speak out on these subjects, even if it risks upsetting some, explaining, “If art can court controversy, I think that’s a good thing because that is the role of art within society. I think there is a lack of that (controversy) in the music industry because people want to impress major labels. We were approached by some major labels before we signed with Heavenly, who are amazing and stand by what we do. They said from day one, they’re not going to stop us how we approach art and our politics.”
Issues at Leeds Festival
Due to the extreme weather, Reneé Rapp withdrew from her set at Leeds Festival after they previously revealed the Chevron Stage, due to be headlined by Skrillex, wouldn’t be open on August 23rd. “Leeds, the weather has been too dangerous for our crew of myself to set up/access the stage all morning,” Rapp explained on Instagram.
Furthermore, the BBC Radio 1 Stage, which was set to be headlined by Beabadoobee, will now longer be opened on August 23rd. Other acts who have had their sets axed include Alfie Templeman, AshNikko, and Destroy Boys.
On the closure of the Chevron Stage, the festival shared, “Thank you all for your patience today. Unfortunately in light of updated site reports and despite our best efforts, the Chevron stage will not be able to open as planned today in Leeds. It will open as scheduled for the rest of the weekend.”
Listed programming had the Aux Stage has also been cancelled for August 23rd, and sets were also effected on the Festival Republic Stage.
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