Wireless Festival cancelled after Kanye West blocked from entering UK

Wireless Festival has been cancelled after US rapper Kanye West was blocked from entering the UK.

Music fans who have purchased tickets for the three performances by West, now known as Ye, scheduled for July in London’s Finsbury Park, will now be refunded.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the Gold Digger rapper, who has used Nazi imagery and faced accusations of antisemitism, should never have been invited to headline the festival.

A statement from organiser Festival Republic said: “The Home Office has withdrawn Ye’s ETA (electronic travel authorisation), denying him entry into the United Kingdom.

“As a result, Wireless Festival is cancelled and refunds will be issued to all ticket-holders.

“As with every Wireless Festival, multiple stakeholders were consulted in advance of booking Ye and no concerns were highlighted at the time.

“Antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent, and we recognise the real and personal impact these issues have had.

“As Ye said today, he acknowledges that words alone are not enough, and in spite of this still hopes to be given the opportunity to begin a conversation with the Jewish community in the UK.”

The headline sets provoked calls for the rapper to be banned from the UK because of behaviour, which has included releasing a song called Heil Hitler and advertising a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website.

West made an application to travel to the UK on Monday via an electronic travel authorisation, but the Home Office stopped him on the grounds that his presence in the UK would “not be conducive to the public good”, the Press Association understands.

West’s ETA was initially granted online before ministers intervened, it is understood.

The Prime Minister said: “Kanye West should never have been invited to headline Wireless.

“This Government stands firmly with the Jewish community and we will not stop in our fight to confront and defeat the poison of antisemitism.

“We will always take the action necessary to protect the public and uphold our values.”

The rapper had offered to meet the British Jewish community before his show.

He said in a statement before the Government’s decision was announced: “I’ve been following the conversation around Wireless and want to address it directly.

“My only goal is to come to London and present a show of change, bringing unity, peace, and love through my music.

“I would be grateful for the opportunity to meet with members of the Jewish community in the UK in person, to listen.

“I know words aren’t enough – I’ll have to show change through my actions. If you’re open, I’m here.”

Presale tickets for Wireless Festival were released at 12pm on Tuesday and are believed to have sold out, while the general sale was due to open at 12pm on Wednesday.

The Community Security Trust (CST), which aims to protect British Jews from antisemitism, described the Government’s decision as “a sensible outcome to what has been yet another bruising episode for British Jews”.

Its statement added: “Anti-Jewish hatred should have no place in society and cultural leaders have a role to play in ensuring that is the case.

“People who show genuine and meaningful remorse for previous antisemitic behaviour will always receive a sympathetic hearing from the Jewish community, but that process must come before this kind of public rehabilitation.”

The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said the Government had made “the right decision”.

In a statement, it added: “When it (the Government) said that antisemitism has no place in the UK, it backed up its words with action.

“Someone who has boasted of making tens of millions of dollars from selling swastika T-shirts and who released a song called ‘Heil Hitler’ just months ago clearly would not be conducive to the public good in the UK.”

Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, had said the group would be willing to meet West if he pulled out of Wireless.

Mr Rosenberg said: “It has been less than a year since Kanye West released a song entitled Heil Hitler, the culmination of three years of appalling antisemitism.

“He also made a number of deeply offensive comments about the black community, saying that the 400-year experience of slavery was ‘like a choice’.

“Even while claiming remorse today, his latest album includes a track first released last year with the abhorrent title Gas Chamber.”

He continued: “The Jewish community will want to see a genuine remorse and change before believing that the appropriate place to test this sincerity is on the main stage at the Wireless Festival.

“As such, we are willing to meet Kanye West as part of his journey of healing, but only after he agrees not to play the Wireless Festival for this year.”

The currently available version of West’s latest album Bully, released last month, does not include any song called Gas Chamber, but the track All The Love, which features CeeLo Green, was reportedly titled Gas Chambers prior to its release.

Festival Republic managing director Melvin Benn had defended the decision to put West on the bill, describing himself as a “deeply committed anti-fascist” and “person of forgiveness”.

In a statement, Mr Benn added: “We are not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature, only to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations in our country and the streaming platforms in our country and listened to and enjoyed by millions.”

Pepsi, Rockstar Energy and Diageo withdrew their major sponsorships from the annual rap and hip-hop festival after West was announced as the headline act.

It is understood that the Mayor of London’s office had refused permission for the London Stadium in Stratford to stage a West concert this summer, with sources citing community concerns and the reputational impact on the city.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called West’s previous comments “really vile”, adding: “The sort of rabbit hole antisemitism/Nazism that he’s gone down is vile.”

However, the politician warned against banning the hip-hop star from coming into the UK, adding: “I think if we start banning people from entering the country because we don’t like what they say, I worry where that ends up.

“If Keir Starmer was to ban people coming into Britain, with whose views he doesn’t like, almost everybody wouldn’t be allowed in. I think it’s a dangerous path to go down.”

In January, West took out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal to apologise, titled: “To Those I’ve Hurt.”

“I am not a Nazi or an antisemite,” it said.

“I love Jewish people.”

In his letter, he said his bipolar disorder led him to fall into “a four-month-long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour that destroyed my life”.