Organisers respond to backlash over Tom Meighan being booked to headline Sheffield festival

nme.com:

Tom Meighan as the headline act for a Sheffield festival, following his domestic abuse conviction in 2020.The former Kasabian frontman was announced over the weekend to be performing at this year’s Be Reyt Festival – which will take place in Sheffield on May 6.

However, the decision has sparked backlash from a number of acts and artists, with an online campaign to boycott the festival reportedly been launched.Meighan was convicted of abusing his partner, Vikki Ager, in 2020 and sentenced at Leicester Magistrates Court to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty.Around the time of the conviction, he parted ways with Kasabian – the chart-topping band he co-founded in 1997 – and explained that he had struggled “for many years with alcohol addiction” as well as seeing the events as a “wake-up call”.

He and Ager went on to be married, with Meighan diagnosed with ADHD and saying that he was “deeply ashamed” of his abusive actions.Now, three years on, Meighan – having launched his solo career – has been booked as the headline act for Sheffield’s Be Reyt festival, in a decision that the organisers deemed a “second chance”.

The store and venue Record Junkee along with festival organisers Network issued a statement, explaining why they booked Meighan as a headline act, and encouraged fans to support the artist as he is “working hard to better himself”.While speaking of their dedication to supporting multiple genres, subcultures, backgrounds and the LGBTQ+ community within Sheffield, they wrote that “equally important to us is mental health”.“With this in mind we agreed to make Tom Meighan our headline act for Be Reyt a co-promoted music event with Away Days (A Festival dedicated to showcasing the best upcoming.