Wireless festival promoter stands by decision to have Kanye West perform

The promoter of Wireless festival has stood by the decision to have Kanye West perform at the event, despite an outcry over the rapper’s antisemitism and calls to cancel his appearance.
West, who is legally known as Ye, has been criticised for making antisemitic remarks including voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler. Last year he released a song called Heil Hitler, a few months after advertising a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website.
His planned appearance has been condemned by MPs and Jewish organisations who have urged the government to ban him from the country. Earlier on Monday, Bridget Phillipson, a senior UK government minister, said West should be barred from performing at the festival because of his “completely unacceptable and absolutely disgusting” antisemitic remarks.
Over the weekend, the prime minister, Keir Starmer, joined criticism of the festival, saying it was “deeply concerning” that West had been booked to perform “despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of nazism”.
On Monday evening, Melvin Benn, managing director of Festival Republic, which promotes Wireless, said West “is intended to come in and perform”, adding that they are “not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature, only to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations in our country and the streaming platforms in our country and listened to and enjoyed by millions”.
He added: “I am a deeply committed anti-fascist and have been all my adult life. I lived on a kibbutz for many months in the 1970s that was attacked on 7 October, am a pro-Jew and the Jewish state, while being equally committed to a Palestinian state.
“What Ye has said in the past about Jews and Hitler is as abhorrent to me as it is to the Jewish community, the prime minister and others that have commented and – taking him at his word – to Ye now also.”
In January, West took out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal apologising for his antisemitic behaviour and attributed his inflammatory actions to his bipolar-1 disorder, which he said he developed as a result of medical oversight failing to diagnose a frontal-lobe injury sustained in a car crash in 2002.
He said that as a result of the disorder, he “lost touch with reality”, prompting him to gravitate towards “the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika”.
Benn said: “Having had a person in my life for the last 15 years who suffers from mental illness, I have witnessed many episodes of despicable behaviour that I have had to forgive and move on from. If I wasn’t before, I have become a person of forgiveness and hope in all aspects of my life, including work.
“Forgiveness and giving people a second chance are becoming a lost virtue in this ever-increasing divisive world and I would ask people to reflect on their instant comments of disgust at the likelihood of him performing (as was mine) and offer some forgiveness and hope to him as I have decided to do.”
Responding to calls to bar West from the UK, Benn said he has “a legal right to come into the country and to perform in this country”. West has not made any immediate plans to travel to the UK but it is understood that ministers are reviewing his permission to enter the country.
Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said Benn’s words “will not reassure many within the Jewish or other communities against whom Kanye West’s invective was directed over a much longer period than his more recent apology”.
“The two key facts remain that Kanye West proclaimed himself a Nazi, and that Wireless stands to benefit financially from his performance.
“Indeed, we note that concern was Mr Benn’s initial reaction to the idea of inviting Kanye West. It remains ours. It is time for Wireless to do the decent thing and rescind an invitation they never should have offered.
“Kanye West may well be on the path to health and healing. We sincerely hope that he is. But the space to test this is not over three days on the Wireless main stage.”
Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, has also called on the government to ban West from entering the UK, saying: “We need to get tougher on antisemitism.”
Pepsi and Diageo have withdrawn their sponsorship of the festival in response to West being announced as the headline act for all three nights, although the brands remain prominently displayed as sponsors on Wireless festival’s website. An AB InBev spokesperson said, in regard to Budweiser and Beatbox: “We have decided to withdraw our sponsorship of this year’s Wireless festival.”
PayPal, which is a payment partner for the annual hip-hop festival, will not appear in any of its future promotional materials.
West has not performed in the UK since he headlined Glastonbury in 2015.