The Mary Wallopers share video of Victorious Festival cutting their set and hit back at festival’s “misleading” statement
After their set was muted as a result of a Palestine flag on stage at Victorious Festival, The Mary Wallopers have shared video footage of the incident.
The Mary Wallopers were about to play a 45-minute set at around 17:00 on August 22nd. However, it was quickly cut short during the first song after they displayed a Palestine flag on the stage. Immediately after, the band posted on their story, “Just got cut off at Victorious Festival for having a Palestinian flag on the stage. We’ve been doing this for 6 years now and this has never happened before.”
Now, The Mary Wallopers have provided an update on the events that unfolded. They posted a video recording of the incident, writing, “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 important facts about yesterday.”
The video depicts the band walking out on the stage, shouting, “How are you getting on? What’s the fucking crack, Portsmouth? We’d like to start this gig by saying free Palestine, and fuck Israel.”
The huge crowd roared in appreciation as the band began their set with ‘Bould O’Donoghue’, while a member of the crew was in discussion next to the draped flag on the speaker with one of the band members. He returns quickly to remove it, after which the frontman, Charles Hendy, yells, “We’d be told our gig would be cut if we played with a Palestinian flag.” He then shouted, “Get the flag back!” and began the chant “Free free Palestine,” when the sound was cut.
The frontman quickly returns to the stage with a new flag, attempting to talk into the microphone to the crowd, who cannot hear him. The band members look around for a while on stage, hoping for the sound to return, as the crowd booes the festival.
A few minutes after their sound is cut, Hendy asks a member of the crew at the side of the stage, “Are we playing or what?” to which the crew member responds clearly, though off-video, that you are “not playing until the flag is removed.”
In early response to the incident, the festival released a statement to Far Out that read in part, “We spoke to the artist before the performance regarding the festival’s long-standing policy of not allowing flags of any kind at the event, but that we respect their right to express their views during the show.”
They continued, stating 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 statement finished, “To be clear, we respect the right of artists to use their platform to express their views within the inclusive nature of the event and it was not the band’s call to ‘Free Palestine’ which resulted in this outcome.”
The Mary Wallopers have now called this statement “misleading”, writing, “Our video clearly shows a Victorious crew member coming on stage, interfering with our show, removing the flag from the stage and then the sound being cut following a chant of “Free Palestine”. The same crew member is later heard in the video saying “you aren’t playing until the flag is removed”.”
Alongside a call to “free Palestine,” the Irish band then added that they “completely reject Victorious’ portrayal of today’s events and request that they retract their statement immediately.”
Victorious Festival has yet to comment on the video footage.
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