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UK probes ‘death to IDF’ chants at Glastonbury festival amid Gaza war
Rapper Bobby Vylan led crowds attending the festival in chants of “free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the IDF."
British police have launched an investigation into rap-punk duo Bob Vylan’s performance at Saturday’s Glastonbury festival, where frontman Bobby Vylan led the crowd in anti-Israel chants.
Authorities said they are reviewing video footage to determine whether any laws were violated that could warrant criminal proceedings.
During the performance, Bobby Vylan led the audience in chanting “Free, free Palestine” and “Death, death to the IDF.” The incident comes amid Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, now in its 20th month, which has killed thousands of Palestinians, including women and children.
UK and Israel condemn ‘death to IDF’ chants at Glastonbury
The anti-Israel chants by the Bob Vylan duo were condemned by the Israeli Embassy, the UK’s health secretary Wes Streeting and the Glastonbury festival’s broadcaster, BBC.
The Israeli Embassy to the UK said on social media that it was “deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival."
Health secretary Streeting on Sunday condemned the band's actions as “appalling." He told Sky News that the BBC and festival organisers had to answer questions about how the comments were broadcast live to millions.
The BBC said it issued a warning on screen about “very strong and discriminatory language” during the live stream. Festival organisers said on Instagram that Vylan's chants “very much crossed a line.”
"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. 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," it said.
Glastonbury is Britain's biggest summer music festival, drawing some 200,000 music fans each year to Worthy Farm in southwest England. Almost 4,000 acts are scheduled to perform on 120 stages during the festival, which started on Wednesday and will go on until Monday.
