Kneecap dropped from festival slot as MPs call out ‘half an apology’

Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap have been dropped from the lineup of the Eden Project concert series, amid controversy over a clip allegedly showing a member of the group telling their audience to “kill your local MP”.

The Belfast-formed band have denied inciting violence and said the clip was “deliberately taken out of context”, as they sent their “heartfelt apologies” to the families of murdered MPs Jo Cox and Sir David Amess.

A spokesperson for Eden Sessions, which organises the concerts at the Cornwall venue, said: “Eden Sessions Limited announced today that the Kneecap show at Eden Project scheduled for 4 July 2025 has been cancelled.

“Ticket purchasers will be contacted directly and will be fully refunded. The refund process will commence from Wednesday 30 April 2025. Refunds will be processed against the original payment cards used.

“Purchasers should allow six working days for funds to be received into their accounts.”

The cancellation comes as ministers raised questions on Tuesday (29 April) over Kneecap’s scheduled Glastonbury performance in June.

Security minister Dan Jarvis said: “It is not for government ministers to say who is going to appear at Glastonbury, it’s for the organisers of the festival.

“But there is, as I have said, and ongoing live police investigation, so the government would urge the organisers at the Glastonbury Festival to think very carefully about who is invited to perform there later this year.”

Conservative former minister Mark Francois claimed it would be “unconscionable” for Kneecap’s performance at Worthy Farm to go ahead, saying they “should surely be barred today”.

In a statement posted to Instagram this week, the group comprising Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, Naoise Ó Cairealláin and JJ Ó Dochartaigh said they rejected “any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual”.

“Kneecap’s message has always been – and remains – one of love, inclusion, and hope. This is why our music resonates across generations, countries, classes and cultures and has brought hundreds of thousands of people to our gigs. No smear campaign will change that.”

Footage from their past shows – including one in November 2023 that appeared to show one member saying ‘The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP’ – had been “exploited and weaponised as if it were a call to action”, they said.

Another clip of footage from a November 2024 concert appeared to show a Kneecap member shouting: “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah.”

Both groups are banned in the UK as terrorist organisations. The Metropolitan Police said both clips have been referred to the counter-terrorism internet referral unit “for assessment and to determine whether any further police investigation may be required”.

Katie Amess, daughter of Sir David, who was stabbed to death in 2021, rejected the band’s apology on Tuesday (29 April).

“It was absurd, that’s not an apology,” she said. “It’s deflection, it’s not taking accountability, it’s making excuses.

“These words that they are using are extremely dangerous and they have not acknowledged that.”

Brendan Cox, whose wife Jo Cox was murdered in 2016, said Kneecap’s statement of regret on Monday was “only half an apology” and lacked genuine reflection.

“It’s fine to say that you’re sorry for it, but the way that they have actually spoken about it is to suggest that it’s a conspiracy, that they have been targeted unfairly and for me that then doesn’t come across as, unfortunately, particularly genuine,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.

“The apology that they’ve given I don’t think has grappled enough with the gravity of what they said,” he added.

“It wasn’t a throwaway remark – it was a very clear incitement to violence.”

Downing Street also accused the apology to the MP’s families of being “half-hearted”.

“We completely reject in the strongest possible terms the comments that they’ve made, particularly in relationship to MPs and intimidation as well as obviously the situation in the Middle East,” the prime minister’s official spokesman said.

“It’s right that the police are looking into these videos.”

Kneecap caused additional controversy at Coachella Festival this month after displaying messages that read: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people”; “It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes”; and “F*** Israel. Free Palestine”.

In a statement last week, the band called out what they branded a “coordinated smear campaign” over their stance on Israel and Palestine, criticism of which they said was based on “deliberate distortions and falsehoods”.

The Independent has contacted Kneecap and Glastonbury representatives for comment.