Irish rap trio Kneecap have canceled their entire upcoming U.S. tour dates set for October, mere months after the band used a Coachella performance to display slogans on stage, including “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine” and “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.”
The band did say its two Canadian shows, one in Vancouver and another in Toronto, are still on. Kneecap blamed the U.S. tour dates cancellation on a scheduling conflict involving band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh’s London court hearing over a terrorism charge for allegedly displaying a Hezbollah flag mid-performance.
“Due to the proximity of our next court hearing in London to the first date of the tour” they have to “cancel all 15 tour dates in October,” the band said, noting that every show had been “fully sold out.”
Kneecap’s Coachella set in April wasn’t the first headline-grabbing controversy but it seems to have fueled a flood of PR nightmares for the band. “Enabled by the U.S. government, which arms and funds Israel despite their war crimes,” reads another of the band’s Coachella stage missives.
UK police said in late April that it was examining footage from a November 2024 Kneecap concert in London that appeared to show a Kneecap rapper shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah.” Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh appeared in court last week on a terrorism charge related to the display of a Hezbollah flag during a concert performance.
Kneecap denied supporting Hamas and Hezbollah. Since April, several Kneecap concerts have been cancelled.
Jerome Hudson is Breitbart News Entertainment Editor and author of the book 50 Things They Don’t Want You to Know About Trump. Order your copy today. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter and instagram@jeromeehudson
