BBC in hot water for airing ‘death to the IDF’ Glastonbury chant

The UK government has ‘strongly condemned’ chants at the Glastonbury festival from rap punk duo Bob Vylan calling for ‘death’ to the Israeli military.

Bobby Vylan of British duo Bob Vylan performs on the West Holts Stage on the fourth day of the Glastonbury festival. Picture: AFP

There are many things to consider when preparing for Glastonbury: sort out your travel arrangements, wear in the new walking boots, make sure to pack the tent poles and take plenty of suncream.

For some, however, the most important thing not to forget is their flag. They are a practical solution to finding friends when you have lost each other among the 200,000-strong crowd, 100 stages and 23 campsites on the 1,000 acres of Worthy Farm. They can also be used to make a statement about Palestine.

Vivienne Booth, 48, a nursery teacher, was flying a Palestine flag she had been given in the Green Futures field, an educational hub at the festival, as she prepared to watch the rappers Kneecap. She said: “We’re trying to get the BBC to show as many [of them] as possible. Starmer needs to be a Labour Party politician rather than a Conservative leader and then maybe we’d be getting somewhere.”

Last week, the Prime Minister declared that it would not be appropriate for Kneecap to perform at the festival after its band member, Liam Og OhAnnaidh, 27, was charged with a terrorist offence after allegedly displaying a flag in support of the proscribed organisation Hezbollah at a London gig.

On Saturday (local time) Bob Vylan, the English punk duo on before the Irish outfit, led the crowd in chants of “death to the IDF”. It prompted Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, to contact Tim Davie, the BBC’s director-general, and demand “an urgent explanation about what due diligence it carried out ahead of the Bob Vylan performance”, a government spokesperson said. “We strongly condemn the threatening comments made by Bob Vylan at Glastonbury,” they added.

Mo Chara, left, and Moglai Bap, right, of Irish rap band Kneecap perform at the West Holts stage on the fourth day of Glastonbury in Somerset, south-west England. Picture: AFP

Festivalgoers watch hip hop trio Kneecap perform. Picture: AP

During Kneecap’s own set, which was not broadcast by the BBC, the trio led the crowd in several chants of “f..k Keir Starmer” and “free Palestine”.

Some in the crowd had seized the opportunity to turn conflict into cash, selling Palestinian flags for £10.

In 2010, after some complaints about flags obstructing the stage, festival organisers consulted fans over whether there should be a ban on them altogether.

“Our gut feeling here at festival HQ is that they shouldn’t be banned as we think they add to the magic,” a festival spokeswoman said at the time. A total of 55 per cent out of 13,178 voters from 71 countries eventually voted to keep the flags.

Many prefer the personal to the political. The choice of what to put on her flag was obvious for Joanna Stefanova, 28, a civil servant who lives in London, who was yesterday (Saturday) carrying a six-metre-tall aluminium flag to keep her group of six friends together. “I got the picture printed of my two beautiful pussy cats, Justin and Jasper, because I miss them while I’m here,” she said.

Among the bucket hats and beer cans, there were thousands of flags flapping in the wind, which sport everything from supermarket logos to pictures of the actress Gillian Anderson. The flag poles can be bought from Amazon for pounds 27 and weigh about 700g. Some people attach the poles to their backpacks, but most opt to carry them in their hands so they can extend and lower them with ease.

Toby Smith, 23, from Cambridge, was at the festival’s West Holts stage on Saturday looking like an ambassador for Lidl, as he dressed head to toe in the supermarket’s branding. “I promise I’m not affiliated with Lidl,” he laughed. “I started collecting the Lidl merch in 2021 when they first released it ... I’ve been messaging them on Instagram trying to get them to give me a flag. Although they responded initially, they went quiet, but they’ve released bandanas and so my mum sewed them together to make the flag.”

Martha Kent, 27, carried a pink flag featuring “her favourite lesbian icons”, including Anderson, who is regarded as an LGBTQ+ advocate for her comments in support of the community, and the footballer Leah Williamson.

Others were more obscure. Bernie Carey, 36, held a flag for her nine friends reading “Dove, veto, more”, which she explained was a rough translation into Italian for: “Where are you, love?”

The Times