Rizzle Kicks show solidarity with Palestine at Victorious Festival: “We are down with The Mary Wallopers”
In reaction to Victorious Festival cutting The Mary Wallopers’ set short due to the inclusion of a Palestine flag on the stage, Rizzle Kicks used their set to endorse their pro-Palestine solidarity.
Yesterday, Irish band The Mary Wallopers took to the stage at the Portsmouth festival for a set that was meant to last for 45 minutes. However, it was over almost as soon as it had begun, after a dispute over their display of a Palestinian flag on stage meant that their sound was cut off, not one song in.
Then, on August 23rd, the band released a video of the incident in order to dispell a “misleading” statement from the festival which posited that it was “the artist’s decision to stop the song,” and event management cut the sound only “after the band used a chant which is widely understood to have a discriminatory context.”
The video depicts a Victorious crew member coming on stage, interfering with the show, removing the flag from the stage, and then the sound being cut following a chant of ‘Free Palestine.
In solidarity, The Last Dinner Party, Cliffords, and The Academic have boycotted the festival. “We are outraged by the decision made to silence The Mary Wallopers yesterday at Victorious,” The Last Dinner Party wrote in a statement on social media. “As a band, we cannot cosign political censorship and will therefore be boycotting the festival today.”
Instead of pulling out of the festival, Rizzle Kicks took to the Common Stage at 13:10 following The Pill an hour earlier. Within their 45-minute set, they turned their attention towards The Mary Wallopers.
As their set headed towards their massive tune, ‘Down with the Trumpets’, Jordan Stephens addressed the energetic crowd. “Before we get into getting down with that, I want to tell you something else we’re down with,” he called out. “We are down with The Mary Wallopers.”
To raucous applause, he continued, “Any band that stands up against ethnic cleansing, apartheid, genocide, starvation, and famine should be respected, especially if they’re fucking Irish.”
Stephens added, “I stand with my Irish people, yeah? Don’t get it twisted,” before checking back in with the crowd ahead of the next tune: “Victorious, are you with me? With that being said, let’s get down with the trumpets. Free Palestine.”
Elsewhere at the festival, Getdown Services posted that they considered pulling out of the festival, but instead decided “to play and donate the entire fee to War Child.” They deemed the Portsmouth festival “spineless, pathetic idiots.”
The festival is set to be headlined by Vampire Weekend tonight.
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