Toploader support act Cliffords backs out of Victorious performance after The Mary Wallopers were 'silenced'
A third band has pulled out of their performance at Victorious Festival this evening.
Cliffords, an Irish indie band, is the third band to boycott Victorious following the controversial incident yesterday, where The Mary Wallopers were ‘cut off’ during their set for having a Palestinian flag on stage.
The band was due to perform ahead of Toploader on the ‘Underthe Trees’ stage later on this evening, but they took to social media saying they ‘refuse to play’.
The statement said: “We’ve made the decision to pull out of Victorious festival. Yesterday @marywallopers were silenced for displaying a Palestine flag on stage.
“Following the ongoing genocide and in light of the recent declaration of famine, we refuse to play if we are to be censored for showing our support to the people of Palestine.
“We were not made aware of a “no flag” policy when we agreed to play Victorious, and while we understand their predicament, we have no intention of playing if this is how artists are treated for speaking out against genocide. We will be donating to @medicalaidpal we’ll put a link on our story so you can donate too.”
Victorious Festival has today (August 23) issued an apology statement saying: “The Mary Wallopers are a fantastic band and we were very much looking forward to their performance at Victorious on Friday.
“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.
“We didn’t handle the explanation of our policies 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.
“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 Last Dinner Party and The Academics also announced they would no longer perform as a result of the incident.