In order to refute the statement issued on behalf of Victorious Festival, The Mary Wallopers have posted their own video footage of the events on stage at Victorious on Friday that saw their microphones cut and their set ended after less than half a song.
In their post, the band asserted, “we completely reject Victorious’ portrayal of today’s events and request that they retract their statement immediately.”
Today, the festival released a further statement on the issue, including the contrite and conciliatory response, “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 that never should have arisen. We would like to sincerely apologise to all concerned.”
Three bands pulled out of Victorious on Saturday due to the festival’s treatment of The Mary Wallopers the day before – Cliffords, The Academic and The Last Dinner Party – necessitating changes to be made to the festival’s schedule.
Excerpts from the bands’ statements:
Cliffords – “We refuse to play if we are to be censored for showing our support to the people of Palestine… We have no intention of playing if this is how artists are treated for speaking out against genocide.”
The Academic – “We can’t in good conscience stand up and play at a festival that silences free speech and the right to express your views. We stand in solidarity with the other Irish acts here this weekend.”
The Last Dinner Party – “We are outraged by the decision made to silence The Mary Wallopers yesterday at Victorious. As a band, we cannot cosign political censorship and we will therefore be boycotting the festival today.”
All full statements and footage from the bands concerned and from Victorious Festival are available via their Instagram accounts: The Mary Wallopers/ Victorious Festival/ Cliffords/ The Academic/The Last Dinner Party.
Vampire Weekend headlined the Common Stage on Saturday night. Ezra Koenig used his platform to address the crowd about what had happened to The Mary Wallopers, showing solidarity and stating unequivocally, “That is wrong.”
The festival concludes on Sunday evening with a headline set from Kings Of Leon.
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