Kneecap At Glastonbury: What Happened When The Band Finally Performed?

Kneecap on stage at Glastonbury 2025After weeks of controversy, Kneecap delivered one of the stand-out sets at Glastonbury this weekend.For the last few weeks, Kneecap have maintained that they’ve been the victims of a “witch-hunt” and “smear campaign” ever since their set at the Coachella music festival in April, where they expressed solidarity with Palestine amid the current conflict in the Middle East.At the time, the band led the crowd in a chant of “free Palestine’ and projected the message “fuck Israel” onto the screens behind them.Days after Coachella, it was first reported that counter-terrorism officers were assessing resurfaced videos recorded months earlier, one of which reportedly saw the group declaring “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” at a gig in London.It was subsequently confirmed that rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known to fans of the group by his stage name Mo Chara – had been charged with a terror offence, for allegedly brandishing the flag of the proscribed terrorist group Hezbollah, after being handed the flag at a Kneecap show in London in November 2024.Responding to Ó hAnnaidh being charged with a terror offence, Kneecap said: “We deny this ‘offence’ and will vehemently defend ourselves. This is political policing. This is a carnival of distraction. We are not the story. Genocide is.”They also insisted: “Let us be unequivocal. We do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah. We condemn all attacks on civilians, always. It is never okay.”In the lead-up to Glastonbury, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer recently called for Kneecap to be dropped from the line-up in light of Ó hAnnaidh’s terror charge, suggesting that the band remaining on the line-up was not “appropriate”. Their show went ahead on Saturday afternoon as planned (albeit without being live-streamed, although an “edited” version was subsequently made available to stream on BBC iPlayer).The Glastonbury crowd pictured during Kneecap's set on the West Holts stageKneecap’s set opened with a montage of TV reports about the controversies they’ve been at the centre of in recent history, with Ó hAnnaidh describing himself as a “free man” at the beginning of the show, having been released on unconditional bail following his first court appearance earlier this month.We made a wee intro video for Glasto - crowd was so big a good few heads couldn't see it so here yis go x 🍿 pic.twitter.com/jonejuUEUx— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) June 28, 2025During the 45-minute set, the band accused Israel of committing genocide, and led the crowd once again in chants of “free Palestine”, as well as “free Mo Chara”, in light of what bandmate Móglaí Bap described as a “trumped up terrorism charge” that was “not the first time there was a miscarriage of justice for an Irish person in the British justice system”.Referring to the sea of Palestinian flags in the audience, Mo Chara observed that the “BBC editor is going to have some job”. The group also turned their attention to the prime minister, leading the crowd in a chant of “fuck Keir Starmer”.Both the “BBC editor” quip and the chant about Starmer have been retained in the BBC iPlayer version of Kneecap’s set, which seemingly only censored some of the group’s lyrics rather than their on-stage comments.Kneecap leads a “F—- Keir Starmer”chant during the group’s #Glastonbury set. pic.twitter.com/xBV54uQero— Variety (@Variety) June 28, 2025The BBC previously faced backlash over their decision not to air Kneecap’s set live, with one fan in the Glastonbury crowd, named Helen, live-streaming it on TikTok, acquiring more than one-and-a-half million likes in the process.Since then, the group wrote back: “Helen, you’re a legend! Tickets to any show – just give me a shout!”Before the performance, it was reported that people were being denied access to the West Holts stage as Kneecap’s set was proving so popular with Glastonbury attendees.While the BBC chose not to live-stream Kneecap’s set, they did show Bob Vylan’s performance live on iPlayer, which wound up creating yet more controversy when the punk rap duo led the crowd in a chant of “death to the IDF”, referring to Israel’s national army, which local police have now said they are investigating.READ MORE:Kneecap Reflect On Incident That Led To Band Member Being Charged With Terror OffenceGlastonbury Organiser Breaks Silence On Controversy Over Kneecap's Spot On This Year's Line-UpKneecap Hit Back After Keir Starmer Says They Should Be Pulled From Glastonbury Line-Up

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