After The Mary Wallopers had their set muted due to the inclusion of a Palestine flag in their show, Getdown Services have hit out at Victorious Festival and promised to donate their performance fee from the event.
On August 22nd, Irish band The Mary Wallopers took to the stage at Victorious Festival in Portsmouth for a 45-minute set that was cut short only a few moments into the first song, after a dispute over their display of a Palestinian flag on stage.
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In reaction, the festival shared a statement with Far Out that read, in part, that it was “the artist’s decision to stop the song,” and event management cut the sound only “after the band used a chant which is widely understood to have a discriminatory context.” According to the festival, the band had fair warning of their no-flags policy.
The band have since deemed this statement “misleading,” writing, “Our video clearly shows a Victorious crew member coming on stage, interfering with our show, removing the flag from the stage and then the sound being cut following a chant of “Free Palestine”.
The same crew member is later heard in the video saying, “You aren’t playing until the flag is removed”. Frontman Charles Hendy can be heard having this conversation in the widely shared video.
After the band called for the festival to “retract their statement immediately,” Bristol duo Getdown Services took to Instagram Stories to share their support for the Irish group, beginning a post on their story with the statement. “Just wanted to say on here we’re appalled by Victorious Festival, you spineless, pathetic idiots.”
They continued, “We’re in a very dark place if festivals can censor bands so shamelessly and openly. Their statement on it was the exact sort of predictable and shallow bullshit you’d expect too from the top to the bottom, everyone involved in this decision should hang their heads in shame, fuck the lot of you.”
The ‘Dog Dribble’ musicians added that “all these ‘keep politics out of music’ cunts too, get a brain,” before turning their attention to their own involvement in the Portsmouth-based festival. They revealed, “We’ve thought hard about whether to pull out, but we’ve decided we’re going to play and donate the entire fee to War Child.”
Josh Law and Ben Sadler then signed the statement off simply with the words, “Fuck off Victorious Festival, Free Palestine.”
Getdown Services will play on the Under The Trees stage at 20:45 on August 24th. The festival is headlined by Kings of Leon, Vampire Weekend, and Queens of the Stone Age.
