Kneecap, a three-member band from Belfast, Northern Ireland, will appear outside Paris on Sunday evening despite objections from French Jewish organizations and government officials, France 24 reported.
Matthieu Ducos, director of the Rock en Seine music festival, told AFP, “We are confident that the group will perform in the correct manner.”
The group is set to perform at the annual festival in the western Paris suburb of Saint-Cloud, even though local authorities pulled a €40,000 (nearly $46,500) subsidy over the group’s scheduled appearance.
In rescinding the funds on July 3, the town council of Saint-Cloud said it was a direct response to Kneecap’s inclusion in the festival’s lineup.
The wider Île-de-France region, which includes Paris, also withdrew its funding for the 2025 festival, France 24 reported. However, the loss of funds didn’t carry much weight given the event’s budget of $18 million–$20 million.
In July, Hungary banned Kneecap from entering the country, saying it constituted a national security risk.
The trio had been scheduled to perform on Aug. 11, the closing day of the annual Sziget Festival (Aug. 6-11), one of the largest music festivals in Europe.
The group made headlines in April for projecting “F**k Israel, free Palestine” at the Coachella music festival in California.
In June, Liam O’Hanna, 27, the band’s founding member, was charged under the United Kingdom’s Anti-Terrorism Act when a video emerged online, in which he displayed a Hezbollah flag and shouted, “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah,” at London’s O2 Kentish Town Forum during a Nov. 21, 2024 concert.
O’Hanna, who wore a keffiyeh to court, was released on bail.
