LONDON — As political and community leaders ramp up calls to disinvite controversial American rapper Kanye West, who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021, from his headline set at this summer’s Wireless Festival in London, major brand partner Pepsi has already pulled its lead sponsorship of the three-day event, intensifying calls for other backers to cut ties as well.
Slated to run July 10 to 12 at north London’s Finsbury Park, the festival had been heavily marketed under the official banner “Pepsi presents Wireless.” Pepsi confirmed its exit from the partnership in a brief Sunday statement, but offered no public explanation for the decision. Advocates and political figures are now pushing remaining core sponsors, including Budweiser and PayPal, to replicate Pepsi’s move and sever their connections to the event if West remains on the lineup.
West, 48, was booked to perform for an estimated 150,000 expected attendees across the festival’s run. The rapper has been mired in widespread global controversy for years over a repeated pattern of virulent antisemitic comments, public praise for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and a series of deliberately provocative actions tied to Nazi ideology: in 2023, he released a track titled “Heil Hitler”, just months after selling a T-shirt emblazoned with a swastika through his official website.
In January of this year, West issued a public apology for his antisemitic remarks via a full-page paid advertisement in *The Wall Street Journal*. He attributed his past harmful actions to a months-long manic episode tied to his bipolar disorder, writing that the “four-month long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life” led to his harmful comments.
The apology appeared to resonate with many of his fans at his first major U.S. concert in nearly five years, a sold-out show at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium this past Friday. Many attendees in attendance signaled they were willing to separate West’s controversial personal views from his musical work, and accepted his January apology.
That reception has not translated to the U.K., however, where political and Jewish community leaders have drawn a hard line against West’s scheduled appearance. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer publicly voiced deep concern over the booking in comments published by *The Sun on Sunday*. “Antisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted clearly and firmly wherever it appears,” Starmer said. “Everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe and secure.”
The controversy over West’s booking comes amid a documented rise in antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom in recent months. Just this past Saturday, three suspects — two adult men and a 17-year-old boy — were ordered to remain in police custody after being charged with arson for setting fire to four ambulances operated by a Jewish community service in northwest London. Last October, two people were killed in a violent attack on a synagogue in Manchester.
Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the leading representative body for Jewish communities in the U.K., called the decision to keep West on the festival lineup a serious mistake. “It’s absolutely the wrong decision” to let the rapper perform, Rosenberg said.
As of Sunday, Wireless Festival organizers had not issued any immediate public comment or response to the growing pressure to remove West from the lineup.