The Last Dinner Party and Vampire Weekend are among the bands who have come out in support of The Mary Wallopers after the Irish band had their set cut short at Victorious Festival.
The Mary Wallopers were just a couple of songs into their show at the Portsmouth festival last Friday (August 22) when they had their sound cut off.
The band then took to their Instagram to confirm the reason that they were removed from stage, saying: “Just got cut off at Victorious Festival for having a Palestinian flag on the stage. We’ve been doing this for 6 years now and its never happened before. Free Palestine all day every day.”
Victorious Festival has just cut off The Mary Wallopers for showing support to Palestine. So grim. pic.twitter.com/nV2010AcUY
— Leigh Kimmins McManus (@LeighMcManus1) August 22, 2025
Victorious is one of many festivals which is operated by Superstruct Entertainment – a company owned by the controversial global investment firm KKR, which has been criticised for its alleged stakes in weapons manufacturing companies and Israel cooperations operating in the occupied Palestine territories.
A spokesperson for the festival spoke to NME, confirming their reasonings behind cutting the sound of The Mary Wallopers, saying: “We spoke to the artist before the performance regarding the festival’s long-standing policy of not allowing flags of any kind at the event, but that we respect their right to express their views during the show.
“The decision by the event management to cut the sound and end the performance was only taken after the band used a chant which is wildly understood to have a discriminatory context.”
Footage from the performance, as seen below, shows that the only chants heard were “free, free Palestine” followed by shouts of “Let them play” once the sound was cut off.
Since the set, many artists and bands have come out in support for the Irish band. Kneecap were the first to make a statement, saying: “Speak up against genocide in England and you’re treated like a criminal. Up The Mary Wallopers. Free Palestine! Free the 6 counties!”
The controversy then led to a boycott of the festival by multiple bands who were scheduled to perform during the weekend, including The Last Dinner Party.
The Brit Award winners took to Instagram to announce their decision to drop out of the festival at short notice: “We are outraged by the decision to silence The Mary Wallopers yesterday at Victorious. As a band we cannot cosign political censorship and will therefore be boycotting the festival today.
“As Gazans are deliberately plunged into catastrophic famine after two years of escalating violence, it is urgent and obvious that artists use their platform to draw attention to the cause. To see an attempt to direct attention away from the genocide in order to maintain an apolitical image is immensely disappointing.”
Fellow Irish bands The Academic and Cliffords then followed The Last Dinner Party’s decision to boycott the festival.
Vampire Weekend then headlined the festival on Saturday (August 23) night and took the chance to address the controversy, with frontman Ezra Koenig saying: “If someone was punished for flying a flag, that is wrong and they deserve an apology. The terrible suffering of the Palestinian people deserves all of our sympathy.”
The Mary Wallopers are yet to receive an apology from Victorious Festival at the time of writing. Keep up to date with this ongoing issue here at mxdwn.co.uk.
