Kneecap will be taking to the Glastonbury stage on Saturday afternoon in front of a packed crowd eagerly anticipating what could be one of the most controversial sets in the festival’s history.
The Irish rap group are performing at 4pm on the West Holts stage, amid criticism from music industry executives and from the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, who said it was not “appropriate” for the band to perform.
One of the trio, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, is on bail charged with a terrorism offence after allegedly displaying a flag representing Hezbollah, a proscribed organisation, at a gig in November last year.
The 27-year-old is also accused of saying “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” – something he told the Guardian in an exclusive interview was a joke and part of his onstage character, Mo Chara.
Of the flag, he said: “It’s a joke. I’m a character. Shit is thrown on stage all the time. If I’m supposed to know every fucking thing that’s thrown on stage, I’d be in Mensa, Jesus Christ.”
He added: “I don’t know every proscribed organisation – I’ve got enough shit to worry about up there. I’m thinking about my next lyric, my next joke, the next drop of a beat.”
The set also comes after 30 music executives signed a secret letter, which was leaked by the DJ Toddla T, attempting to get the Belfast artists pulled from the lineup.
In response, more than 100 popular musicians signed a public letter in support of the group, including Massive Attack, Pulp, Fontaines DC, Thin Lizzy, Idles, Paul Weller, this year’s Mercury Prize winners English Teacher and the BBC radio DJ Annie Mac.
Ó hAnnaidh said: “The fact that the letter was leaked changes things. And I hope that these people regret it. I think they’re already starting to.”
The trio are also backed by Glastonbury’s founder, Michael Eavis, and his daughter, Emily, who has taken over the running of the festival in recent years. She told the BBC: “There have been a lot of really heated topics this year, but we remain a platform for many, many artists from all over the world and, you know, everyone is welcome here.”
The crowd is expected to be heaving at the West Holts, one of the site’s smaller main stages, which may pose a challenge for Glastonbury organisers, who have previously been accused of allowing potentially unsafe overcrowding when popular acts have been scheduled to play smaller stages and tents.
The band are also likely to be giving the BBC a headache, as the organisation attempts to meet impartiality guidelines while anticipating similar scenes to Kneecap’s Coachella performance in April, when “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people” was displayed on screens and the group led crowds in chants of “Free, free Palestine.”
On Thursday, Kneecap released a short video that may offer hints of what to expect, about what they described as the genocide of the Palestinian people by the state of Israel, featuring doctors and humanitarians who bore witness to the horrors of the onslaught. “This is collective punishment and extermination of the Palestinian people,” the voiceover said.
The cause appears to have a huge amount of support at Glastonbury, where Palestinian flags are commonplace in crowds, messages such as “Free Palestine” have been sprayed on fences, and political spaces feature discussions about the conflict.
The Speakers Forum on Thursday hosted a discussion that included Francesca Nadin from Palestine Action, who is awaiting sentence after serving nine months on remand in custody for criminal damage of two banks that support a weapons manufacturer.
On Monday, the government said it was aiming to ensure the campaign group becomes a proscribed organisation, a controversial move that means members would face a terror charge and prison.
Nadin urged the crowd to write to their MPs in support of Palestine Action but said if the group were to become proscribed, activists would “cross that bridge when we come to it”.
