The Last Dinner Party is no longer playing Victorious Festival. In a statement posted to Instagram, the band members revealed why they withdrew from their set at the U.K. festival.
The Last Dinner Party was slated to perform on Aug. 23. However, the day prior there was an incident with another band, The Mary Wallopers, at the festival.
The Mary Wallopers’ set was cut short after they held a Palestinian flag on stage and declared “Free Palestine.” That decision, was not one The Last Dinner Party wanted to support.
“We are outraged by the decision made to silence The Mary Wallopers yesterday at Victorious,” the band‘s statement read. “As a band we cannot cosign political censorship and will therefore be boycotting the festival today.”
The Last Dinner Party Explains Their Decision
The Last Dinner Party continued their statement by noting, “As Gazans are deliberately plunged into catastrophic famine after two years of escalating violence it is urgent and obvious that artists use their platform to draw attention to the cause.”
“To see an attempt to direct attention away from the genocide in order to maintain an apolitical image is immensely disappointing,” the band wrote.
The band’s statement continued by highlighting their own advocacy efforts.
“Throughout this summer we have used our stages to encourage our audience to donate even a drink’s worth of money to Medical Aid for Palestinians, and today we urge you more than ever to do the same,” they wrote. “We are so deeply sorry to our fans who were looking forward to seeing us today, and we are devastated to be put in this position that upsets both us and you.”
The band ended their statement by writing, “Free Palestine.”
The festival responded to the band’s decision in a Facebook comment.
“We are sorry that The Last Dinner Party have decided not to perform today,” the festival wrote, adding that they “regret not being able to reach a positive conclusion with them but respect their decision and their ongoing support for Palestinian humanitarian causes.”
“We would like to draw your attention to the donation link in their bio,” the statement continued, “which would have been shared on the screens at Victorious today.”
What Happened After The Mary Wallopers’ Set?
After their set was cut short, The Mary Wallopers posted a video of the incident on Instagram.
“The festival have released a misleading statement to the press claiming they cut our sound because of a discriminatory chant and not the band’s call to Free Palestine,” the band wrote. “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.’”
“We completely reject Victorious’ portrayal of today’s events and request that they retract their statement immediately,” the band added. “We know this is getting some attention and we don’t want another distraction which takes attention away from the genocide that is happening in Palestine.”
Victorious Festival Releases a Statement
Afterwards, Victorious Festival spoke out in a statement on Facebook.
“The Mary Wallopers are a fantastic band and we were very much looking forward to their performance at Victorious on Friday,” the post read. “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.”
“We didn’t handle the explanation of our policies sensitively or far enough in advance to allow a sensible conclusion to be reached,” the statement continued. “This put the band and our own team in a difficult situation which never should have arisen. We would like to sincerely apologise to all concerned.”
The festival’s statement continued, “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.”
In conclusion, the festival wrote, “We accept that, although mics remained live for longer, sound for The Mary Wallopwers’ audience was cut as described in the band’s video and that comments after that were not audible to the public. We are sorry that this situation has come about and will be making a substantial donation to humanitarian relief efforts for the Palestinian people.”
Photo by Luke Brennan/Getty Images