Glastonbury mixed pop and politics long before the Bob Vylan controversy

LONDON – The Glastonbury Festival is making headlines for controversy alternatively than music.

The likes of Olivia Rodrigo, Rod Stewart, Neil Young, Charli XCX, Busta Rhymes and Doechii played to tens of thousands onsite, and millions much connected TV, during Britain’s biggest and astir celebrated euphony extravaganza. But it’s little-known rap-punk duo Bob Vylan attracting politicians’ ire — and a constabulary probe — aft starring a chant calling for “death” to the Israeli military.

This isn’t the archetypal clip authorities has collided with popular astatine the festival. For fractional a century, Britain’s large governmental and taste divides person recovered their mode onstage astatine Glastonbury.

Glastonbury grew from the counterculture

The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, to springiness it its afloat name, was founded by Michael Eavis successful 1970 connected his Worthy Farm, 120 miles (some 200 kilometers) southwest of London. It’s inactive tally by the 90-year-old husbandman and his daughter, Emily Eavis.

Originally a hippie happening with a 1 lb summons terms (about 20 pounds oregon $27 today), Glastonbury has mostly shed its counterculture cachet. These days, tickets for the three-day lawsuit outgo adjacent to 400 pounds. But it remains celebrated for its eclectic lineup, unsocial ambiance and committedness to environmentalism and different progressive causes.

This year’s lawsuit drew astir 200,000 people to spot astir 4,000 performers connected 120 stages, alongside movie screenings and unrecorded debates connected a assortment of issues.

The festival has ever had a governmental side

Glastonbury was founded successful a tone of hippie idealism that has ne'er wholly faded. In the 1980s, the festival donated immoderate of its profits to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which protested U.S. atomic weapons connected British soil. It continues to enactment charities including Oxfam and Greenpeace.

By the precocious 1980s, attendees included New Age “travelers” progressive with the U.K.’s unofficial and anarchic rave scene. In 1990, immoderate travelers clashed with information astatine the site, starring to important harm and much than 200 arrests.

Since then, the festival’s information and enactment person grown progressively professional, sparking regret from immoderate fans who consciousness it has mislaid its alternate spirit.

The 2016 festival coincided with the U.K.’s referendum connected European Union membership, and the determination to permission the bloc — which astir young radical opposed — overshadowed the event. Many performers mentioned Brexit and the dispirited mood, including headliner Adele, who urged radical to “look aft each other.”

Performers person often vented their absorption to politicians from the stage. In 2019, rapper Stormzy led the assemblage successful “F___ Boris” chants aimed astatine then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson. This year, Irish rappers Kneecap directed the aforesaid expletive astatine Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Emotions are precocious implicit the Gaza war

Israel’s war against Hamas successful Gaza has provoked heightened emotions that spilled implicit onto Glastonbury’s stages.

Before the event, immoderate politicians called for Glastonbury to cancel a show by Irish-language hip-hop trio Kneecap, whose pro-Palestinian comments, critics say, person crossed a enactment into enactment for violence.

Kneecap subordinate Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh has been charged nether the Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed enactment for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag astatine a performance successful London successful November. He denies the charge, and Kneecap has accused critics of trying to soundlessness the set due to the fact that of its enactment for the Palestinian cause.

Kneecap’s energetic acceptable included plentifulness of pro-Palestinian comments and disapproval of the government. But it was the enactment that preceded them, Bob Vylan, that caused a furor erstwhile a subordinate of the duo led chants of “death to the IDF,” the Israel Defense Forces.

The Avon and Somerset Police unit said officers would reappraisal video grounds “to find whether immoderate offenses whitethorn person been committed that would necessitate a transgression investigation.

Michael and Emily Eavis said Bob Vylan had “very overmuch crossed a line.” They said “there is nary spot astatine Glastonbury for antisemitism, hatred code oregon incitement to violence.”

The BBC is facing criticism

Britain’s publically funded nationalist broadcaster is nether occurrence for showing Bob Vylan’s set, 1 of dozens of Glastonbury performances it streamed unrecorded online.

The BBC said Monday that it should person chopped disconnected the broadcast aft the “antisemitic” and “utterly unacceptable” comments, and has removed the show from its website. But the authorities is demanding to cognize what “due diligence” it did connected Bob Vylan earlier the broadcast.

Some media experts accidental the broadcaster is successful a hard position. Steven Barnett, prof of communications astatine the University of Westminster, said Britain’s influential right-wing press,” including newspapers specified arsenic the Daily Mail and The Sun, often onslaught the BBC, “for some commercialized and ideological reasons.”

Right-leaning newspapers featured the Bob Vylan communicative prominently, and Barnett said that attraction “puts immoderate governmental person nether tremendous pressure” to explicit an opinion.

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