{"id":7758,"date":"2026-04-06T20:25:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2026\/04\/wireless-festival-backs-ye-as-2026-headliner-in-official-statement\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T20:25:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:25:24","slug":"wireless-festival-backs-ye-as-2026-headliner-in-official-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/2026\/04\/wireless-festival-backs-ye-as-2026-headliner-in-official-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Wireless Festival Backs Ye As 2026 Headliner In Official Statement"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Music mogul Ye remains scheduled to headline this summer\u2019s Wireless Festival despite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hot97.com\/news\/50-cent-weighs-in-on-pepsi-pullout-over-kanye-at-wireless-fest\/\">backlash<\/a> and the exit of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hot97.com\/news\/kanye-west-wireless-fest-pepsi-withdraws-sponsorship-amid-backlash\/\">several major sponsors<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Festival Republic managing director Melvin Benn issued a lengthy statement Monday defending the decision to keep Ye atop the lineup. The three-night event will take place July 10\u201312 in London.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Wireless Festival is standing by Ye as the festival\u2019s headliner <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1f6a8.png\" alt=\"\ud83d\udea8\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\"><\/p>\n<p>Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic, which organizes Wireless Festival, has made a statement:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am a deeply committed anti-fascist and have been all my adult life. I lived on a kibbutz for many\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mvhc9reG2X\">pic.twitter.com\/mvhc9reG2X<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kurrco (@Kurrco) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Kurrco\/status\/2041240662394470771?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 6, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Benn\u2019s response followed reports that brands including PepsiCo, Rockstar Energy Drink, PayPal and Diageo stepped away from sponsorships tied to the event. The corporate withdrawals came after renewed scrutiny of Ye\u2019s past antisemitic remarks.<\/p>\n<p>In the statement, Benn attempted to separate the festival\u2019s booking decision from the rapper\u2019s controversial history. He began by stressing his personal political beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am a deeply committed anti-fascist and have been all my adult life,\u201d Benn said. \u201cI lived on a kibbutz for many months in the 1970\u2019s that was attacked on October 7th, am pro Jew and the Jewish state, while being equally committed to a Palestinian state.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-ye-will-remain-the-wireless-festival-2026-headliner-per-official-statement-by-melvin-benn\">Ye Will Remain The Wireless Festival 2026 Headliner, Per Official Statement By Melvin Benn<\/h2>\n<p>Benn said those views shaped how he approached criticism surrounding the performance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat 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,\u201d Benn said, adding that he believes the artist now regrets the statements.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Benn insisted the festival booking centers on music rather than ideology. According to him, Ye\u2019s catalog remains widely available across British media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYe\u2019s music is played on commercial radio stations in this country,\u201d Benn said. \u201cIt is available via live streams and downloads in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He emphasized that the festival is not inviting Ye to deliver political commentary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature,\u201d Benn said. \u201cOnly to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations and streaming platforms and enjoyed by millions.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Is Kanye FORGIVEN? Celebs Show Up to SoFi &#038; Sponsors Pull Out\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yWD1VLuOoKE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Benn also framed his stance through personal experience with mental illness within his family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cForgiveness and giving people a second chance are becoming a lost virtue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>For now, organizers say Ye remains locked in as a headliner, even as debate around the booking continues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Music mogul Ye remains scheduled to headline this summer\u2019s Wireless Festival despite backlash and the exit of several major sponsors.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14044,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[10,9],"class_list":["post-7758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-rss","tag-culture","tag-hip-hop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14044"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westcoastaftershock.com\/wca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}