Irish rap trio Kneecap has under fire over the past few months for their controversial political views — leading to cancelled gigs and festival appearances. Now, they’ve been banned from Hungary just two weeks before they were set to perform at a festival in Budapest.
Kneecap was scheduled to perform at Sziget Festival — which is set to run from August 6 to 11. However, authorities in Hungary have now banned the trio from entering the country, explaining in a statement that the group “posed a national security threat.”
“[Kneecap]’s members repeatedly engage in antisemitic hate speech supporting terrorism and terrorist groups,” government spokesman Zoltán Kovács wrote on X. “Hungary has zero tolerance for antisemitism in any form.”
Kovács added that the government “insists that festival organizers must ensure compliance with Hungarian law and morally sound programming.”
“The real issue: this isn’t just a protest — it’s support for terror, celebration of extremist violence and a clear anti‑Semitic statement,” Kovács said.
Sziget Festival, however, disagreed with the decision, noting in a statement on Instagram that “this is an unprecedented move which we believe is both unnecessary and regrettable.”
“Following concerns raised by Government and pressure groups across Hungary over the past weeks at the prospect of Kneecap performing, we have liaised closely with the band and they reassured us their performance would not contravene either Sziget’s values or Hungarian law,” festival organizers said.
“Sziget Festival’s values mean we condemn hate speech, while guaranteeing the fundamental right to artistic freedom of expression for every performer,” they continued. “Cancel culture and cultural boycotts are not the solution.”
| READ: Kneecap Removed from Scottish Festival Over Safety Concerns |
Festival organizers added that the government’s decision to ban Kneecap “may not only damage the reputation of Sziget, but also negatively affect Hungary’s standing worldwide” and the festival “will continue to do everything in its power to remain, in every sense, The Island of Freedom.”
Kneecap responded to Hungary’s ban and pointed out that the country just welcomed “wanted war criminal” Benjamin Netanyahu a few weeks earlier “like a hero,” however, Viktor Orban’s government says they posed a national security threat.
“There is no legal basis for [Orban’s] actions, no member of Kneecap has ever been convicted of any crime in any country,” the trio said. “We stand against all hate crimes and Kneecap champions love and solidarity as well as calling out injustices where we see it.”
Kneecap called their decision “a clear political distraction and a further attempt to silence those who call out genocide against the Palestinian people.”
| READ: French Rock Fest Loses Funding After Booking Kneecap |
This is the latest festival to face controversy over its booking of Kneecap; last week, the municipal authority for the Paris suburb of Saint-Cloud said it withdrew a 40,000 euro ($46,000) subsidy for Rock-en-Seine after organizers booked Kneecap, noting that they money had been agreed upon before the lineup was revealed.
Kneecap has faced backlash across the music scene following their pro-Palestine performance at Coachella, displaying “F**k Israel, Free Palestine” on the screens behind them. Since the on-stage protest, the band said they’ve been made targets of a “smear campaign.”
They were also removed from Scotland’s TRNSMT festival, as well as Germany’s Hurricane Festival and Southside Festival.
The trio was also facing a criminal investigation over their Glastonbury set, where they led he crowd in chants of “Fuck Keir Starmer” and “Free, free Palestine.” Additionally, the group told the crowd to “riot outside the courts” during member Mo Chara’s upcoming hearings in the UK, though they later clarified that they’re calling for “no riots — just love and support, and support for Palestine.”
However, the criminal investigation was dropped on Friday, July 18. The BBC reported that police concluded there was “insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction for any offense.”
