Major Belfast music festival 'tarnishes itself' with Kneecap Saturday headline slot on Titanic Slipways: Allister
A major Belfast dance music festival taking place this weekend has “tarnished itself” by booking Kneecap for a headline slot, TUV leader Jim Allister has said.
The controversy-courting rap trio top the bill on the second day of the AVA Festival, which takes place in a significant location with historical ties to the capital city’s industrial heritage – Titanic Slipways, where the famous ocean liner was built and launched.
Fans at the £86 per ticket outdoor event could be in for a damp time; weather forecasters say the current hot spell that has Ulster baking in the sun is to turn to rain-showers over the course of Saturday, and the band take the stage that night.
Kneecap have certainly garnered a stormy response from Mr Allister, with the North Antrim MP insisting their lyrics and image – from their much-merchandised tricolour balaclava to their very name, a reference to a frequently employed brutal method of Republican punishment attack – “insult and mock the innocent victims of terror”.
“Any event which associates with them tarnishes itself and is guilty by association,” he told the News Letter. “The 1,800 graves of IRA victims and countless shattered bodies and minds across Northern Ireland are not a punchline.
“Society owes victims better than this.”
Kneecap and their organisation have repeatedly refused to speak to the News Letter in the past. Their manager was contacted, but has yet to respond.
The AVA Festival usually prioritises electronic dance music rather than rap; for example, the first day of this year’s event is headlined by Irish house producer Kettama while both days are heavy with a host of local club DJs.
In publicity, organisers describe this year’s line-up as “a landmark programme led by Kneecap, headlining their hometown of Belfast for a defining moment in the festival’s history”.
It comes after the band released their third album ‘Fenian’, which contended for the UK number one slot only to lose out to a Michael Jackson best-of, before plummeting out of the charts in the space of a fortnight.
Released three weeks ago, during strong early sales Kneecap took to social media to state the record “would become the first ever Irish language album to top the charts” and claiming that Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch “will be sick” if the band pulled it off. They came in second to ‘The Essential Michael Jackson’.
‘Fenian’ sank to number 29 the following week, while the Jackson compilation remained in the top spot. When the latest charts were released last Friday, Kneecap’s third record had fallen out of the Top 100 albums altogether.
The album fared better in the Republic of Ireland, where it was number one for a week before being knocked off by the same Michael Jackson best-of. ‘Fenian’ currently sits at number 21 in the country’s charts.
Their slot in Belfast comes exactly two years after the group angered many left-wing fans when, despite their frequent pro-Palestine words, they broke a boycott to play an English festival sponsored by a company with financial ties to arms manufacturers supplying Israel’s military.
Half of the acts booked for the Great Escape in May 2024 pulled out, but Kneecap performed anyway. The rappers insisted they had to play as they’re a “working band” while dismissing critics as middle-class.