Victorious Festival issue new statement after The Mary Wallopers set cut
Victorious Festival have issued a new statement after The Mary Wallopers had their set cut short due to a Palestine flag being on stage on August 22nd.
The Irish group took to the stage at the Portsmouth festival for a set that was meant to last for 45 minutes. However, their performance was over almost immediately, after a dispute over their display of a Palestinian flag on stage led to their sound being cut off, preventing them from playing.
A day later, the band released a video of the incident in order to hit back at 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 showed a festival crew member coming on stage as the band played their first song. The crew member began interfering with the show, removing the flag from the stage. Soon after, the sound was cut. A “Free Palestine” chant followed.
After a handful of bands, such as The Last Dinner Party, Cliffords, and The Academic boycotted the festival, Victorious have released a new statement apologising for the incident. Their statement began, “The Mary Wallopers are a fantastic band and we were very much looking forward to their performance at Victorious on Friday. We are in the business of putting on great shows, not cutting them off and this is the last thing we wanted, for the band, their fans and ourselves.”
They admitted that their decision, in the moment, did not reflect well on the festival, writing, “We didn’t handle the explanation of our policies sensitively or far enough in advance to allow a sensible conclusion to be reached. This put the band and our own team in a difficult situation which never should have arisen.”
They added simply, “We would like to sincerely apologise to all concerned.”
After The Last Dinner Party said the festival were in the business of “political censorship,” the Victorious statement clarified, “We absolutely support the right of artists to freely express their views from the stage, within the law and the inclusive nature of the event. Our policy of not allowing flags of any kind, which has been in place for many years for wider event management and safety reasons, is not meant to compromise that right.”
They then referenced the video posted by The Mary Wallopers on social media, writing, “We accept that, although mics remained live for longer, sound for The Mary Wallopers’ audience was cut as described in the band’s video, and that comments after that were not audible to the public.”
The Portsmouth festival concluded that they will be making a “substantial donation to humanitarian relief efforts for the Palestinian people” to further apologise for the incident.
The festival is set to be headlined by Vampire Weekend tonight.
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