Manchester’s Radar Festival says it was left with no choice but to pull Bob Vylan from its 2025 lineup, following the punk-rap duo’s controversial set at Glastonbury Festival.
The pair sparked headlines during their performance on Glastonbury’s West Holts Stage, leading chants of “Death to the IDF” while also calling out the BBC, the US and UK governments, and more. Frontman Bobby Vylan told the crowd, “We are the violent punks, because sometimes you gotta get your message across with violence because that is the only language some people speak, unfortunately.”
The backlash was swift. Glastonbury organizers issued a statement condemning the chants, saying they “very much crossed a line” and that there is “no place at Glastonbury for anti-Semitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.”
Radar initially confirmed Bob Vylan’s removal with a brief statement on July 2: “Bob Vylan will not be appearing at RADAR Festival this weekend.” But in a new interview on the Two Promoters One Pod podcast, organizer Catherine Jackson-Smith shared that the festival did not want to cancel the group’s headline set.
“It was categorically one of the most horrendous professional discussions I’ve ever had,” she said. “I cannot express clearly enough that I wanted Bob Vylan to perform at our festival. But this was not our decision.”
According to Jackson-Smith, Radar was caught between behind-the-scenes conversations involving the venue, its co-owners AMG and Live Nation, and local authorities. The decision to drop Bob Vylan was presented as an ultimatum: either cancel the band’s appearance or risk losing the entire Saturday program.
“There was not an option for Bob Vylan to step on stage on Saturday; that became apparent at the beginning of the week,” Jackson-Smith explained. “If we continued with Bob Vylan as our headliner, we wouldn’t have the festival happening on Saturday.”
The festival, which runs July 4-6 at Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse, is independently operated by Jackson-Smith and co-founder Joe James. Canceling the band prevented what she described as a “precarious situation” that could have impacted 41 other acts and the viability of the event itself.
Adding to the complexity, Bob Vylan’s agency dropped the band in the wake of the Glastonbury controversy, forcing Jackson-Smith to have a direct conversation with the group about their removal.
“It was horrific as a conversation,” she said. “Bob Vylan knew that we didn’t want to pull them.”
In response, Bob Vylan posted on social media: “Silence is not an option. We will be fine, the people of Palestine are hurting. Manchester, we will be back.”
The Glastonbury performance continues to ripple across the industry. Alongside being dropped from Radar, Bob Vylan has reportedly been removed from the Kave Festival in France and a Gogol Bordello support slot in Cologne. Their US visas have also been revoked, and they are under criminal investigation in connection to the remarks.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy criticized the BBC for airing the performance, calling it “a problem of leadership,” while US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau described Bob Vylan’s remarks as “a hateful tirade.”
In a follow-up statement, Bob Vylan said they are “not for the death of Jews or Arabs or any other race or group” and called for “the dismantling of a violent military machine.”
Radar Festival has yet to announce a replacement headliner for Saturday. Jackson-Smith confirmed efforts are underway but acknowledged the difficulty of securing a last-minute act. “We might end up with someone that has no discernible political opinion at this point because if they’re free and they can play on Saturday, maybe that’s the only criteria,” she said.
Radar Festival told Billboard they will be making no further comment on the matter. The festival runs July 4-6 at Manchester’s O2 Victoria Warehouse.
