Essex Files: The Death of Decency on Stage

There was a time when music festivals were about unity. About losing yourself in sound, not political tribalism. About crowd-surfing, not crowd-inciting. That time is clearly gone.

At this year’s Glastonbury Festival, a band called Bob Vylan led thousands of attendees in a chant that included the words: “Death to the IDF.” This wasn’t some fringe tent performance at 3 AM. It was broadcast live on the BBC, in front of the world, as though inciting violence was just another act on the bill between Taylor Swift and the taco truck.

And just when you thought the cultural rot couldn’t sink deeper, Irish rap group Kneecap — already known for their political antics — followed up with more pro-Palestinian chants and inflammatory statements. If the name sounds familiar, it should. They pulled a similar stunt at Coachella earlier this year, where one of the members wore a “Palestine Action” T-shirt linked to a group facing terrorism-related scrutiny in the UK.

The BBC: try to ban Kneecap and when that fails refuse to air the set.

Bob Vylan:

Top set so far 🫡#Glastonbury #bobvylan pic.twitter.com/2M6ZQdg2nF
— Matt Price (@Matt_Price_1971) June 28, 2025

Essex Files: Coachella Shows Cowardice by Focusing on Hate for Israel and President Trump

We’re not talking about peace symbols or protest songs here. We're talking about chants celebrating the death of a nation's soldiers, in the middle of an ongoing war with a terror group that rapes, kidnaps, and murders civilians.

What’s worse is that these moments aren’t spontaneous explosions of protest — they’re orchestrated. And they’re getting airtime. Festival organizers and broadcasters aren’t just tolerating this — they’re platforming it. The BBC streamed it. Coachella organizers watched it happen without a whisper of rebuke. This is no longer “artists expressing themselves.” This is performance propaganda with a backstage pass.

In Britain, we now jail the likes of Lucy Connolly for dumb, incendiary social media posts (that she deleted), but 1000s chant about killing people at a major music festival, live on our publicly funded broadcaster, and nobody seems to care. Outrageous double standard. https://t.co/FR0vSF8auf
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 28, 2025

Let’s get one thing straight: Criticizing Israel or calling for Palestinian rights isn’t antisemitic. But shouting “Death to the IDF” is not a nuanced foreign policy take — it’s a violent call against Jewish soldiers defending their people, live from the same stages that once gave us David Bowie and Johnny Cash. And let’s not pretend that “Free Palestine” — when led by people wearing gear linked to radical groups — is just a peaceful plea. Words matter. And in today’s hyper-connected world, they travel farther and strike deeper.

This is quite simply disgusting. A music festival audience urging the deaths of Israelis who were literally slaughtered at a music festival. Glastonbury ought to be ashamed of themselves…https://t.co/6thZUBU9iQ
— Mike Graham 🇬🇧 (@Iromg) June 28, 2025

This isn't about left or right. It’s about a growing cultural cowardice, a willingness to tolerate hate so long as it checks the right political boxes. It’s about elite institutions being too scared to condemn extremism when it wears designer sneakers and speaks in hashtags.

The line used to be clear: Art should challenge us, not endanger us. Music should unite, not divide. And festivals should be a place where the worst thing you risk is sunburn, not the normalization of genocide slogans.

We’ve gone from “make love, not war” to “make chants, not sense.”

If the cultural gatekeepers won’t protect decency, then the rest of us must call it out. Loudly. Boldly. And unapologetically.

Because if we don’t, the only encore we’ll be getting is a stage full of radicals — and the sound of common sense fading into static.

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