Kneecap explain their decision to play The Great Escape over boycott: “You can’t de-platform yourself”

nme.com:

Kneecap have discussed their reasons for not participating in the boycott of The Great Escape last month.Over 100 artists pulled out of the Brighton festival over its sponsorship by Barclays, which has been accused of financial ties to companies arming Israel.

However, the bank claims it is “trading in shares of listed companies in response to client instruction or demand”.The Irish rap trio’s decision was caused some controversy online given that they have always taken a stand against what they call Israel’s “occupation and genocide” of Gaza.They helped to raise nearly £100,000 for a volunteer gym in the Aida Refugee Camp in Palestine and spoken publicly about it via social media and a message shared after a high-profile appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

They have also made headlines for ignoring Irish public broadcaster RTÉ’s requests to not wear pro-Palestine badges.Kneecap did participate in the boycott of SXSW (after the UK government withdrew arts funding to get them to get there; resulting in a legal battle) after discovering the US military was supporting the festival.

Eventually, every Irish act pulled out.Now, Kneecap have commented on why they still participated in The Great Escape in the latest edition of NME’s The Cover.“If your income depends on this life and you’re a touring band, then everything’s connected to one of these companies in some way,” said member Móglaí Bap. “Ideally, if we had the money, we’d just boycott everything and sit in the house and tweet all day.”Meanwhile, bandmate Mo Chara argued that “SXSW was obviously a completely different thing”, adding: “That was the army sponsoring it, do you know what I mean?”Elaborating on their decision to play The Great Escape, Chara.