Glastonbury Responds to Bob Vylan's 'Death to the IDF' Chant

Glastonbury organizers have addressed the controversy following punk duo Bob Vylan's set on Saturday, during which singer Bobby Vylan led the crowd in several chants, including "death, death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]."

A statement released on Sunday morning by Glastonbury Festival’s official Instagram account and organizer Emily Eavis stated:

With almost 4,000 performances at Glastonbury 2025, there will inevitably be artists and speakers appearing on our stages whose views we do not share, and a performer’s presence here should never be seen as a tacit endorsement of their opinions and beliefs.

The statement continued:

However, we are appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan yesterday. Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.

Bob Vylan performed on the West Holts stage on Saturday afternoon to a large audience, prior to Kneecap’s set. Kneecap’s performance was not broadcast by the BBC following recent controversy regarding their political statements, which led to member Mo Chara being charged under the U.K.’s Terrorism Act. Bob Vylan’s set was broadcast live. In addition to the "death to the IDF" chant, Bob Vylan also led the crowd in chanting "free, free Palestine" and "from the river to the sea, Palestine must be free."

The BBC described the comments made during the set as "deeply offensive."

During this live stream on iPlayer, which reflected what was happening on stage, a warning was issued on screen about the very strong and discriminatory language. We have no plans to make the performance available on demand.

Kneecap also made comments during their set, including chants of "fuck Keir Starmer" and "free Palestine." While Kneecap did not directly address the BBC’s decision not to air their performance, Chara commented on the presence of Palestinian flags in the audience, stating: "The BBC editor is going to have some fucking job."

Avon and Somerset police stated on Saturday that they were reviewing comments made during both Bob Vylan and Kneecap’s sets.

Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offenses may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation.

The U.K. government also addressed Bob Vylan’s comments, stating to the BBC:

The culture secretary has spoken to the BBC director general to seek an urgent explanation about what due diligence it carried out ahead of the Bob Vylan performance, and welcomes the decision not to re-broadcast it on BBC iPlayer.

Representatives for Bob Vylan did not respond to requests for comment.