Beverage company Pepsi has withdrawn its sponsorship of Wireless Festival after the event booked Kanye West as headliner, following his Nazi-related remarks.
Pepsi, the main sponsor of Wireless Festival under the branding “Pepsi presents Wireless,” withdrew its support after the festival booked West, also known as Ye, as headliner for three nights in July at Finsbury Park, north London.
A Pepsi spokesperson told ITV News on Sunday: “Pepsi has decided to withdraw its sponsorship of Wireless Festival.”
Screenshot of the logo for the upcoming Wireless Festival. Credit: Wireless Festival
The move follows criticism from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who called the booking “deeply concerning.”
The rapper has drawn widespread criticism in recent years after he began voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler and has made a series of antisemitic remarks.
Last year, he released a song called “Heil Hitler”, only a few months after advertising a Swastika T-shirt for sale on his website.
As first reported by The Sun on Sunday, Starmer said: “It is deeply concerning that Kanye West has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism.
“Antisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted clearly and firmly wherever it appears. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe and secure.”
The 48-year-old rapper’s appearance at Wireless Festival comes as fears of antisemitism grow within the UK.
In March, four ambulances from a Jewish community-run service were set on fire in north-west London.
Two men and a 17-year-old boy were remanded in custody on Saturday after appearing in court accused of torching the vehicles.
In October last year, two men were killed in an attack on a Manchester synagogue.
Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning.
Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said it was “absolutely the wrong decision” to allow West to play.
The musician apologised in January for his antisemitic remarks in a letter published as a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal newspaper.
In his letter, he apologised to Jewish and black people.
He said his bipolar disorder led him to fall into “a four-month-long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour that destroyed my life”.
ITV News has approached Wireless Festival for comment.
Reporting History sees journalists join News At Ten anchor Tom Bradby to revisit their remarkable on-the-day reports of the defining events of the modern age. Listen to the episodes below…