Glastonbury was a pathetic celebration of hatred

Gone are the days where muddy hippies would celebrate peace and love at festivals. This year, Glastonbury showcased hatred and division, writes Joe Hildebrand.

There is nothing like a music festival to bring young people together in a celebration of peace and love.

Ever since thousands of mud-soaked hippies decided to befoul a bunch of farmland in Woodstock, music festivals have been synonymous with good vibes, mung beans and the munchies.

Indeed, it was a music festival staged on October 7, 2023 for the very purpose of promoting peace that was stormed by Hamas terrorists, who abducted, raped and killed hundreds of terrified attendees.

That did not, it occurred to me at the time, seem to be in the spirit of the occasion.

But how wrong I was.

Just a year later, the Irish rap group Kneecap was playing another music festival in London when one of its members allegedly shouted “Up Hamas! Up Hezbollah!” while draped in a Hezbollah flag.

Guess I really picked the wrong side on that one.

Liam O’Hanna, 27, known as “Mo Chara”, has now been charged with a terrorism offence – because both Hamas and Hezbollah are proscribed terrorist organisations in the UK, as they are here – but that hasn’t been enough to stop the group appearing at this weekend’s Glastonbury Festival.

Mo Chara (L) and Moglai Bap (R) of Irish rap band Kneecap perform at the West Holts stage on the fourth day of the Glastonbury festival. Picture: AFP

Indeed, they have effectively been promoted to the biggest festival of all, with O’Hanna boasting that he was a “free man” and another band member declaring: “The Prime Minister of your country, not mine, said he didn’t want us to play, so f**k Keir Starmer!”

Wow.

So edgy.

But at least they didn’t promote any terrorism this time or encourage people to kill anybody, another historic crowd favourite for the group.

This was left to their warm-up act, a duo called “Bob Vylan” — geddit?

They led chants of “Free, free Palestine!” And “Death, death to the IDF!” while members of the crowd waved Palestinian flags in support.

So at least there was some incitement to violence to satisfy ticketholders.

Now of course the police are investigating those comments too – they don’t do much but investigate comments in the UK – which raises the question of whether this is an infringement of free speech.

Maybe.

But I can’t help but wonder how much freedom of expression would be tolerated if a crowd member pulled out an Israeli flag and started waving that around.

Festivalgoers watch as Irish rap band Kneecap perform. Picture: AFP

Still, I don’t want to see anyone prosecuted for words or flags alone.

I just want them to see themselves.

As far as festivals go, they don’t come more over-pretentious, overpriced and over-preachy than Glastonbury – which even has its own Poet-in-Residence.

There is an entire section on its web page literally headed “Worthy Causes”, which brags about its sustainability and charity work and boasts such inspiringly meaningless slogans as “Rise up/Protect/Empower”.

Not quite as catchy as “Death, death to the IDF!” but still.

And from the management to the talent to the cashed-up hipsters who pay the equivalent of $800 for general admission, these are all undoubtedly people who would consider themselves the most progressive, enlightened and caring on the planet.

And yet they somehow allowed, took part in or even fomented an environment that results in a performer and their audience openly chanting for people to die.

Are these really the “progressives”? People cheering performers who support terror organisations that kill other innocent festivalgoers?

People chanting along with calls for Israeli soldiers to die? Are these same people who have “be kind” in their Twitter bio?

But here’s the real kicker.

Whenever Kneecap have been busted over previous extreme statements, they don’t even stand by them.

Instead they whinge and moan about being taken out of context, claim they are victims of a political witch-hunt, and say the comments are just part of their persona or act.

In other words it’s not really about Palestine or any other cause at all.

Those Kneecap boyos just say stuff to try to sound hardcore, and then if they have to face any consequences they fold like a house of cards and pretend they’re the victim.

And if that sounds familiar it’s because it is the template of every angry activist crusader.

They don’t really care about the cause as much as showing people how much they care about the cause.

It is as big a performance as anything on the Glastonbury line-up.

As for actual peace in the Middle East, the person who’s done most to achieve that in recent days is Donald Trump.

Maybe he should be the next Poet-in-Residence.