The Last Dinner Party withdrew from their scheduled performance at Victorious Festival on Saturday (Aug. 23) in protest of an incident involving fellow band the Mary Wallopers, whose set was cut short after they showed support for Palestine.
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The British indie rock-pop group announced their decision on social media Saturday morning, referencing the previous day’s events in which the Mary Wallopers displayed a Palestinian flag on stage and called for a “Free Palestine.”
“We are outraged by the decision made to silence the Mary Wallopers yesterday at Victorious,” the Last Dinner Party wrote on Instagram. “As a band we cannot cosign political censorship and will therefore be boycotting the festival today.”
They continued, “As Gazans are deliberately plunged into catastrophic famine after two years of escalating violence it is urgent and obvious that artists use their platform to draw attention to the cause. To see an attempt to direct attention away from the genocide in order to maintain an apolitical image is immensely disappointing.”
The Last Dinner Party also encouraged fans to donate to medical aid for Palestinians and closed their message with “Free Palestine.”
On Friday (Aug. 22), members of the Mary Wallopers took the stage at Victorious Festival carrying a Palestinian flag and voiced the message, “Free Palestine and f—k Israel.” Their sound was cut off after a crew member removed the flag, prompting the band to lead a chant of “Free Palestine” and encourage festival-goers to leave.
The incident was documented in a video posted on the Mary Wallopers’ Instagram.
“We are uploading this video so everybody can see @victoriousfestival cut our gig short for having a Palestinian flag on stage,” the Irish band captioned the post. “The festival have released a misleading statement to the press claiming they cut our sound because of a discriminatory chant and not the band’s call to Free Palestine. 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.’”
On Saturday, Victorious Festival organizers addressed the incident in a statement on their Facebook page.
“We are in the business of putting on great shows, not cutting them off and this is the last thing we wanted, for the band, their fans and ourselves,” the statement read. “We didn’t handle the explanation of our policy sensitively or far enough in advance to allow a sensible conclusion to be reached. This put the band and our own team in a difficult situation which never should have arisen. We would like to sincerely apologise to all concerned.”
The organizers added, “We absolutely support the right of artists to freely express their views from the stage, within the law and the inclusive nature of the event. Our policy of not allowing flags of any kind, which has been in place for many years for wider event management and safety reasons, is not meant to compromise that right.”
The statement concluded, “We accept that, although mics remained live for longer, sound for The Mary Wallopwers’ audience was cut as described in the band’s video and that comments after that were not audible to the public. We are sorry that this situation has come about and will be making a substantial donation to humanitarian relief efforts for the Palestinian people.”
Several other acts, including The Academic and Cliffords, have also announced they will be boycotting this year’s Victorious Festival.
The 2025 edition of Victorious launched on Friday and runs through Sunday (Aug. 24), with headliners including Queens of the Stone Age, Vampire Weekend and Kings of Leon.
