Vampire Weekend on The Mary Wallopers Victorious controversy: “That is wrong and they deserve an apology”
Vampire Weekend used their headline set at Victorious to say it is “wrong” for a festival to punish an artist for flying a flag.
On Friday (August 22), Irish band The Mary Wallopers were halfway through the opening song of their set at the Portsmouth festival when their sound was cut by Victorious organisers and the Palestinian flag they had on stage was taken away.
The decision was met with furious responses from both the band themselves and many of the other artists on the bill – several of whom, including The Last Dinner Party, The Academic, Cliffords and Esme Emerson, decided to boycott the festival as a result.
On Saturday night (August 23), Vampire Weekend topped the bill and, after their opening song ‘Mansard Roof’, frontman Ezra Koenig addressed the controversy. Explaining that the band had been travelling and did not have all of the information, he said it would be “wrong” if any artists had been prevented from sharing a political view.
“If someone was punished for flying a flag, that is wrong and they deserve an apology,” he said. “The terrible suffering of the Palestinian people deserves all of our sympathy.”
As reported by Portsmouth News, Koenig’s comments were met with huge cheers and applause from the crowd.
After The Mary Wallopers’ set was cut off, Victorious representatives told NME that the show was not ended because of the presence of the flag on stage, but because “the band used a chant which is widely understood to have a discriminatory context”.
In response, the band shared an unedited video of the events from the stage, and said: “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. 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.”
Posted by Victorious Festival on Saturday, August 23, 2025
Victorious then posted a statement in which they apologised “to all concerned”, adding: “We accept that, although mics remained live for longer, sound for The Mary Wallopers’ 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.”
Among the other artists to cancel their sets at Victorious were The Last Dinner Party, who said they were “outraged by the decision to silence The Mary Wallopers”, and they could not “cosign political censorship”.
The Mary Wallopers’ fellow Irish artists The Academic and Cliffords also pulled out of the festival. The Academic said they “can’t in good conscience stand up and play at a festival that silences free speech and the right to express your views”, while Cliffords said, “we refuse to play if we are to be censored for showing our support to the people of Palestine”.
Victorious is one of many festivals to be operated by Superstruct Entertainment, which is owned by the controversial global investment firm KKR, which has been criticised by many artists for its alleged stakes in weapons manufacturing companies and Israel corporations operating in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Several other festivals that are backed by KKR have addressed their concerns about the connection. Tramlines said they would “never send them a single Euro”, while Mighty Hoopla stated their “clear opposition to KKR’s unethical investments”.
The post Vampire Weekend on The Mary Wallopers Victorious controversy: “That is wrong and they deserve an apology” appeared first on NME.
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