After Israel hatred at Glastonbury Festival: Bob Vylan will not perform in Cologne

The duo Bob Vylan, which attracted attention at the Glastonbury Festival with anti-Israel slogans , will not be performing at the Live Music Hall in Cologne in September. The event center announced this via social media. "The band Bob Vylan will NOT be performing as the opening act on September 13, 2025 at the Live Music Hall!" reads the Instagram account. No details were given as to the reasons for the cancellation. A query from the Berliner Zeitung to the organizers has so far remained unanswered. The Live Music Hall declined to comment further when contacted by phone.

On Monday, Bob Vylan was announced as a special guest for the band Gogol Bordello. Gogol Bordello will perform in several German cities in September, including a concert at the Berlin venue Huxleys Neue Welt. Promoter Trinity Music, which is responsible for the concert in the capital, also announced Bob Vylan as the opening act in a tour text. Whether this will happen remains to be seen – Trinity Music has not yet responded to a request for comment.

The punk-rap duo performed at the Glastonbury Festival in England last Saturday and shouted anti-Israel slogans on stage. Singer Pascal Robinson-Foster chanted "Death to the IDF," the Israeli military forces that have been waging war against the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas for months. Robinson-Foster encouraged the audience to chant, shouting "Free, free Palestine" and "From the River to the Sea, Palestine must be free," which can be interpreted as a call for the destruction of Israel. The musicians didn't utter a single critical word about the terror of Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

Glastonbury is one of the world's most famous music festivals. Around 200,000 people attended the multi-day event in the Somerset town in southwest England.

The events there caused an international stir. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer criticized the BBC for broadcasting the performance live – the broadcaster subsequently expressed regret for the broadcast. The US State Department announced it would deny the duo visas for a US tour. And the president of the German-Israeli Society, Volker Beck, called for Bob Vylan to be barred from entering Germany. "Anyone who sings and shouts 'Death to the IDF' should not be allowed to perform in Germany!" the former Green Party member of parliament wrote on Platform X.

In response to a query from the Berliner Zeitung, the Federal Foreign Office stated that it fundamentally rejects "calls to violence." Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of the Interior is responsible for entry into Germany. The ministry has not yet responded to a query from this newspaper.