Woman who livestreamed Kneecap Glastonbury set on TikTok received “obscene” abuse
The woman who livestreamed Kneecap’s Glastonbury 2025 set on TikTok has spoken about the “obscene” abuse she has received online.
The Irish rap trio’s performance at Worthy Farm last weekend was among the most anticipated sets at the festival, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer among those calling on them to be removed from the line-up after a series of controversies.
Consequently, the BBC decided to pull their live coverage of it just hours before the took the stage, and many fans at home found themselves instead watching a livestream on TikTok from a woman near the front of the crowd at the West Holts Stage.
Now, that woman – a yoga teacher from Swansea named Helen Wilson – has given an interview to The Guardian in which she has detailed some of the abusive messages she has since received online.
“I have had a lot of trolling,” she said. “When you rang, I was just in the middle of deleting some obscene comments off my business Facebook page. There was somebody on Instagram just saying he sent me a message saying: ‘You’re just a wrinkled old woman looking for attention.’”
She also said she has been called a “Nazi” by others, but clarified that she has received “hundreds and hundreds times more support than negativity”.
Expanding on why she decided to stream the set, she said: “This is about the genocide in Palestine, and this is about the failure of our government to act, to do anything about it.”
“I just thought, I’m just going to livestream it because the BBC aren’t showing it. And I really disagreed with that. I did not think for a moment that over 2 million people would see it.”
“More people need to know what is going on in Palestine. And we shouldn’t be censoring bands under freedom of speech, full stop. We shouldn’t be censoring anybody who is trying to raise awareness of the atrocities that are taking place.”
Kneecap hit out at Starmer during the Glastonbury set and reiterated their support for the people of Palestine. Avon and Somerset Police later said they were investigating the set, as well Bob Vylan’s, under possible criminal charges.
That investigation follows two others from London’s Met Police – one into Mo Chara allegedly shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” and displaying a Hezbollah flag on stage, for which he appeared in court and been granted unconditional bail, and the other into alleged on-stage comments in which the band said “the only good Tory is a dead Tory”, for which they will not face any further action.
The band have consistently denied supporting Hamas or Hezbollah, and say they do not incite or condone violence, describing the legal action against them as “a carnival of distraction”.
On Saturday, Kneecap were joined by Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten on stage at Finsbury Park in London for a version of ‘Better Way To Live’, while joking that is was “nice to be back in London and not be up in court”.
The post Woman who livestreamed Kneecap Glastonbury set on TikTok received “obscene” abuse appeared first on NME.
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