The Pop Corporation

We’ve wandered into the summer, and that of course, means it is festival season. Alongside the usual hedonism, middle class kids doing some working class tourism, yurts, balloons, and flags, there’s also going to be Palestine.

A lot of media outlets are focusing on Kneecap, who have been vocal in their support for Palestine and become embroiled in various controversies and criticisms. At Coachella, the crowd were in full support, but the festival organisers offered a mealymouthed take of saying that they were ‘blindsided’ by the performance, which is funny given that anti-imperialism is core to what Kneecap do.

They’re not showing up in balaclavas because cold, lads.

People acting in bad faith have been scouring the internet for old Kneecap shows in a bid to make some kind of example of them, trying to corner them into some kind of support for Hezbollah, and resulting in Mo Chara being charged by the Met Police with some flimsy terror offence.

He appears in court today about it, and shows have been cancelled, and pop-ups have popped off, while the group have said this whole thing is a “carnival of distraction.”

However, this is festival season and people young and old are making their voices heard, which leads us wondering if those who are clutching their pearls about this whole thing are in the mind that Kneecap are the only people who are going to be talking about this?

Love Music Hate Racism have shown support for Kneecap, saying: “Anyone trying to silence them, or get them pulled from shows, is on the wrong side of history.”

Fontaines D.C. are of course, one of the hottest tickets on the circuit right now, and Grian Chatten of the group has stated that the terror charge brought against Kneecap is tantamount to “a witch hunt.”

This is support right across the age ranges as well, if you are mistakenly thinking that this is just young bucks acting up, with support coming from Paul Weller, Primal Scream, Massive Attack, Pulp, The Pogues, IDLES, Annie Mac, Dexy’s Kevin Rowland and Lankum.

Johnny Marr has taken to social media to lend his voice too, saying: “After learning that calls have been made for Kneecap to be censored during their Glastonbury set, I think it’s important that I make my own position clear. I’ve played Glastonbury many times and the festival has always had a political aspect.”

“It was founded as a place of free expression and political activism and it’s a fact that I agreed to play there with The Smiths in 1984 purely because to do so at the time was a political act. We are living through very troubling times, but for anyone who’s been interested in me or my music over the last 40 years, I feel like my political stance has always been very clear”.

“Oppression fears artistic expression. I respect all musicians who use their platform to speak out against injustice, who promote compassion and equality and give voice to the voiceless. I stand with my audience and fellow musicians who call for an immediate end to the atrocities and a free Palestine”.

This summer, we’re going to see hundreds of groups and artists talking about this. It straddles genres, with the club world being very vocal about a host of issues from trans rights, to Gaza. In pop, Dua Lipa has been very vocal about the situation and arena giants Coldplay have even thrown their weight behind it at live shows. The Weeknd has donated millions to the cause.

It’s bizarre that people are approaching this as some kind of Kneecap shaped problem, and not something that’s the subject that people are currently talking about the most. Artists from all ends of the music spectrum, from the uber famous to the grassroots, are talking about it.

Regardless of the artists themselves, let us not forget that this was the main stage at Glastonbury 2024.