The Mary Walloper from Laois speaks out after being prevented from playing at major festival

A BAND member of The Mary Wallopers has spoken out over organisers of a British festival muting their sound and preventing them from playing at the festival.

Ahead of their set on the Main Stage in front of thousands of music fans at the Victorious Festival in Portsmouth, as the band members were setting up on stage, they produced the Palestinian flag with lead singer Andrew Hendy shouting; “Free Palestine and F**k Isreal.

Starting into their first song one of the organisers approached the bass player Róisín Barrett, (from Portlaoise) and asked that she take the flag down from her amp, to which she told him to go speak with the band manager. A couple of seconds later he came back on stage and took the flag.

Andrew Hendy stopped singing and told the crowd: “We were told our gig would be cut if we flew the Palestinian flag. This is the sort of shit they have here. Give that flag back”, and began chanting “Free, free Palestine,” with tens of thousands of the festivalgoers joining in as well as booing and demanding the organisers to “let them play, let them play.” 

It was at this stage that the sound was cut to the stage.

The bass player with the band Róisín Barrett said: “But Andrew plugged his banjo lead into the guitar amp because it was the only thing they couldn’t cut and continued chanting along with the festivalgoers.” Another band member Charles Hendy approached the organisers asking, “are we playing or what,” only to be told by an organiser, “you’re not playing until the flag is removed,” to which Charles replied: “We’ve been playing for six years with that flag.” 

Róisín Barrett said: “The reason why we have displayed the Palestinian Flag at all our gigs is to keep people focused on the genocide that is taking place in that country by Israel. Women and children are being brutally slaughtered day, after day. The invading forces have prevented life-saving medicines from entering the country. Hospitals and schools have been bombed to the ground and on the same day they tried to silence us, a United Nations-backed confirmed that famine had taken hold in Gaza.” 

In a statement from the organisers as to what transpired at the event it said: “We spoke to the artist before the performance regarding the festival’s long-standing policy of not allowing flags of any kind at the event, but that we respect their right to express their views during the show.

“Although a flag was displayed on stage contrary to our policy, and this was raised with the artist’s crew, the show was not ended at this point, and it was the artist’s decision to stop the song.

“The decision by the event management to cut the sound and end the performance was only taken after the band used a chant which is widely understood to have a discriminatory context.

"To be clear, we respect the right of artists to use their platform to express their views within the inclusive nature of the event and it was not the band’s call to ‘Free Palestine’ which resulted in this outcome.” 

However, that statement was roundly disputed by the band.

In their statement they said: “Yesterday, a famine was declared in Gaza, where at least 65 people were killed by Israeli attacks, all the while Israel pushed ahead with plans to split the West Bank in two. 

"These are the important facts about yesterday.” 

The band said: “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 (on Instagram) 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”.

We completely reject Victorious’ portrayal of today’s events and request that they retract their statement immediately.

“We know this is getting some attention and we don’t want another distraction which takes attention away from the genocide that is happening in Palestine.

“So why wouldn’t we highlight the unimaginable suffering of a people that Israel is trying to ethnically cleanse and wipe off the face of the earth.” 

Róisín Barrett added: “You stand for something. Or you stand for nothing. We, as a band, would like to think that by using the platform we have that we can continue to expose the mass murder that is taking place in Palestine.”