Wireless Festival Will KEEP Kanye West As Headliner As Managing Director Issues Statement

It looks like Wireless is not backing down and will keep Kanye West as its headliner this summer, despite having loads of sponsors, including Pepsi and PayPal, pull out of the event.

Melvin Benn (below), the Managing Director of Festival Republic, issued the following statement:

“I am a deeply committed anti-fascist and have been all my adult life. I lived on a kibbutz for many months in the 1970’s that was attacked on October 7th, am pro Jew and the Jewish state, while being equally committed to a Palestinian state. 

“Having had a person in my life for the last 15 years who suffers from mental illness, I have witnessed many episodes of despicable behaviour that I have had to forgive and move on from. If I wasn’t before, I have become a person of forgiveness and hope in all aspects of my life, including work.

“What Ye has said in the past about Jews and Hitler is as abhorrent to me as it is to the Jewish community, the Prime Minister and others that have commented and – taking him at his word – to Ye now also. 

“Ye’s music is played on commercial radio stations in this country. It is available via live streams and downloads in this country without comment or vitriol from anyone and he has a legal right to come into the country and to perform in this country. He is intended to come in and perform. We are not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature, only to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations in our country and the streaming platforms in our country and listened to and enjoyed by millions. 

“Forgiveness and giving people a second chance are becoming a lost virtue in this ever-increasing divisive world and I would ask people to reflect on their instant comments of disgust at the likelihood of him performing (as was mine) and offer some forgiveness and hope to him as I have decided to do”

Well, I’d never heard of his Melvin fella before today but it’s good to see someone showing some backbone in a situation like this for once. I was 100% sure that Wireless would fold and cancel Kanye after all those big sponsors began pulling out, but the guy has stuck to his guns with this statement explaining his decision to keep the rapper on the show.

Now he just has to hope that Kanye doesn’t say or do anything too insane while headlining Wireless over July 10 – 12. If all goes well, Ye’s performance could end up being the biggest middle finger to cancel culture that the world has ever seen. Just keep that ‘Heil Hitler’ song off the setlist IMO.

P.S. This could all still go to pot if the Home Secretary bans Kanye from entering the country. We’ll have to wait and see how it plays out.

For the time Kanye told a Jewish executive at Adidas to ‘hang a picture of Hitler in your kitchen and kiss it every day’, click HERE. Yikes.