Wireless Fest organizer Melvin Benn has released a statement standing by the decision to have Ye (formerly Kanye West) headline the London-based festival for three nights in a row this summer.
Benn, who serves as a managing director of Festival Republic, which oversees Wireless Fest among other U.K. festivals, defended having West perform, but admitted, “What Ye has said in the past about Jews and Hitler is as abhorrent to me as it is to the Jewish community.”
Benn’s statement included him proclaiming he’s “pro Jew and the Jewish state, while also being equally committed to a Palestinian state.”
In Benn’s personal life, he explained that someone close to him suffers from mental illness, which led to him forgiving and moving on from “many episodes of dispicable behaviour.” “I have become a person of forgiveness and hope in all aspects of my life, including work,” he added.
The statement continued to detail how Ye’s music is platformed on DSPs and played on radio stations throughout the U.K. “without comment or vitriol from anyone and he has a legal right to come into the country and to perform in this country.”
Benn turned the mirror on those who have criticized the decision and asked them to reflect, as he believes forgiveness and second chances have become a “lost virtue in this “ever-increasing divisive world.”
“Forgiveness and giving people a second chance are becoming a lost virtue in this ever-increasing divisive world and I would ask people to reflect on their instant comments of disgust at the likelihood of him performing (as was mine) and offer some forgiveness and hope to him as I have decided to do,” Benn concluded.
London mayor Sadiq Khan was among those critical of Wireless Fest’s decision to platform Ye. ““We are clear that the past comments and actions of this artist are offensive and wrong, and are simply not reflective of London’s values,” a spokesperson told Complex. “This was a decision taken by the festival organizers and not one that City Hall is involved in.”
U.K. prime minister Keir Starmer said it was “deeply concerning” to have West perform “despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism.”
In the days since Wireless Fest announced that the London festival was booking Ye to perform, a handful of festival sponsors have dropped out, including Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch, Diageo and Rockstar.
Coming off the release of his Bully album and a pair of SoFi Stadium concerts in Los Angeles, West is slated to take the Wireless Fest stage on July 10, July 11 and July 12.
