Withdrawal of Music Bands from the British "Victorious" Festival Following Dispute Over Raising the Palestinian Flag

Three music bands announced their withdrawal from the "Victorious" festival in Britain on Saturday, in solidarity with the Irish band "The Mary Wallopers" which stated that the organizers prevented them from raising the Palestinian flag during their performance on Friday, in an incident that sparked widespread controversy.

The withdrawal of the bands "The Last Dinner Party", "Cliffords", and "The Academics" came in response to the incident, prompting the festival organizers to issue an apology to the Irish band and pledge to make a "significant donation to humanitarian relief efforts for the Palestinian people", after initially claiming that the reason for cutting the performance was the use of a "discriminatory chant".

The band "The Last Dinner Party" published a statement on Instagram expressing their anger at "the decision made to silence the band /The Mary Wallopers/", affirming that the decision to boycott was a rejection of political censorship. The statement accused the festival management of attempting to divert attention from the Palestinian issue, stating: "While the people of Gaza are deliberately forced into the grips of catastrophic famine after two years of escalating violence, it is essential and clear that artists use their platforms to draw attention to this issue. Seeing an attempt to divert attention away from genocide to maintain a non-political image is extremely disappointing." The statement concluded with a call for the public to donate to the Medical Aid for Palestinians organization and the slogan "Free Palestine".

On the other hand, a spokesperson for the festival provided a different account of the incident, stating that the festival's policy is "not to allow any type of flags", emphasizing that the decision to stop the song came from the band itself. However, the band "The Mary Wallopers" denied this account, describing it as "misleading", citing a video recording that allegedly shows "one of the Victorious crew members coming on stage, intervening in our performance, and removing the flag from the stage, then the sound is cut after the chant 'Free Palestine'", adding that the same member threatened them by saying "You will not play until the flag is removed".

In a subsequent statement on Instagram, the organizers issued a broader apology, acknowledging that they "did not handle the interpretation of their policies sensitively or in a timely manner", describing the band as "wonderful", and expressing regret for putting everyone "in a difficult position that should never have happened".