CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
After years of massaging headlines to avoid offending the political class, it seems that the world’s traditional media stalwarts are struggling to keep up with the sheer number of political statements that need censoring at the iconic Glastonbury Music Festival.
After weeks of deep anxiety over escalating conflict in the Middle East, it appears that the young people of Britain and Europe are not letting themselves be bound by the ever-increasing laws aimed at curbing free speech and protest.
Tens of thousands of people have made the annual pilgrimage to England’s south-west countryside, with almost just as many Palestinian flags.
The controversial Irish-language rap group Kneecap has performed in front of 30,0000 fans chanting “Free Palestine”, defying United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer who said he did not think it was “appropriate” for the band to appear given the fact that they are facing terrorism charges for similar scallywag behaviour.
Elsewhere on the line up, even stronger language was being used to condemn the actions of the Israeli government, as the heart-breaking screams of the starving and maimed children of Gaza continues to echo around the world, despite the best efforts of the major news networks to present brazen war crimes as completely normal military operations.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, over 133,054 people have been wounded and at least 56,412 Palestinians have been killed and in Israel’s war on Gaza – many of them children, and many of them slowly.
It seems that this kind of cruelty does not sit well with young people or the artists that they love – and they are very willing to speak out against it – in a revelation that has shocked the media class to it’s core.
While the BBC made the executive decision to not broadcast the KNEECAP performance, the public broadcaster was unable to keep up with the amount of artists that needed to be censored for their advocating for basic human rights for Palestinians on stage.
This was not the only political cause to be championed at Glastonbury, but it was the only one that has drawn condemnation from the British government.
In the same way that KNEECAP has been characterised as ‘IRA-sympathising terrorists’ – the crowds at Glastonbury will now be described as ‘rich kids’ with ‘luxury beliefs’. Their political demonstrations will also be dismissed because they are the privileged elites who were able to save up the equivalent of half a week’s rent in London before road tripping to a very mainstream music festival in rural England.
