Wireless festival boss defends decision to invite Kanye West to headline event

The head of the company responsible for the Wireless Festival has defended the announcement that Kanye West will headline the event, talking about “forgiveness and giving people a second chance” and saying “we are not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature.”

In a statement on Sunday evening, Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic, described living on a Kibbutz half a century ago and being “pro Jew and the Jewish state… 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.”

Kanye West, who is one of the best-selling rap artists of all time, has had two two major and extended episodes in which he has described himself as a Nazi and publicly disparaged Jewish people. During the first, in 2022, he talked about going “Deathcon 3 [sic] on Jewish people”, claimed that he was being targeted by “the Jewish media” said “I am a Nazi”, and “there’s a a lot of things I love about Hitler”. He was ultimately dropped by sports giant Adidas, with whom he had previously enjoyed a successful and highly lucrative partnership, via the “Yeezy” trainer line.

Having apologised to the Jewish community in 2023, in 2025 West publicly revoked that apology, saying, “I’m never apologising for my Jewish comments. I can say whatever the f— I wanna say forever”. He went on to describe himself as “a Nazi” again and in May 2025 released a song called “Heil Hitler”. He purchased a Superbowl ad which directed people to buy merchandise from his website, including clothes featuring a black swastika. As a result, West was dropped by his talent agency and banned from entering Australia.

In the wake of the announcement by Wireless festival last week that Kanye West would be headlining, every single major Jewish community organisation in this country condemned it, as did the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Education. Earlier on Monday it was reported that government ministers were actively considering whether or not to approve any visa application by West to enter the country.

On Sunday, Pepsi, the lead sponsor of the festival, announced that it would be withdrawing its sponsorship. Diageo and Paypal, two of the festival’s other major backers, have since followed suit. There were significant questions as to why Wireless had not responded to any requests for comment since its announcement last Monday.

In his statement, Benn also referred to “having had a person in my life for the last 15 years who suffers from mental illness”. He went on to say that “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.”

Benn also said that “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.”

Phil Rosenberg, President of the Board of Deputies, responded to Benn’s statement by saying that “after a week of Wireless Festival avoiding any media, this statement will not reassure many within the Jewish or other communities against whom Kanye West’s invective was directed over a much longer period than his more recent apology.

“The two key facts remain that Kanye West proclaimed himself a Nazi, and that Wireless stands to benefit financially from his performance. Indeed, we note that concern was Mr Benn’s initial reaction to the idea of inviting Kanye West. It remains ours. It is time for Wireless to do the decent thing and rescind an invitation they never should have offered. Kanye West may well be on the path to health and healing. We sincerely hope that he is. But the space to test this is not over three days on the Wireless main stage.”

A spokesperson for the Jewish Leadership Council said: “We are deeply disappointed by the statement from Melvin Benn which demonstrates a clear failure to understand the issue at hand. While his sponsors are abandoning his festival as they rightly decide not to profit from racism, Benn has chosen to stick by an individual responsible for spreading antisemitism to his vast audience.

“Given West’s repetition of vile Jew hatred after a previous apology, Benn appears to be either naïve or wilfully gaslighting the British public by his attempt to claim West’s racism is no longer an issue.”