
Committee asks BBC boss for view on ‘what went wrong' with Glastonbury coverage
They led chants of 'Death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)' during their set on the West Holts Stage on Saturday, with the broadcaster providing on-screen warnings about discriminatory language on its platform.
It later apologised on Monday and said the chants held 'antisemitic sentiments' that were 'unacceptable'.
Irish rap trio Kneecap, who are also facing an Avon and Somerset Police investigation, appeared on the same stage directly after Bob Vylan and led the Glastonbury audience in 'Free Palestine' chants.
It has since been revealed that Tim Davie was at Glastonbury when the pro-Palestine chants were broadcast.
In a letter sent to Mr Davie by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday, chairwoman Dame Caroline Dinenage asked the BBC boss 12 questions after saying its coverage had caused 'widespread concern'.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy previously said that 'several' editorial failures 'becomes a problem of leadership' during a statement on the BBC's coverage to the Commons.
It has since been revealed that Tim Davie, the BBC's director general, was at Glastonbury when Bob Vylan performed (Peter Byrne/PA)
Among the questions, Dame Caroline said: 'Before the festival started, did the BBC consider streaming all or part of its Glastonbury coverage with a short time delay, to allow room to respond to events if necessary?'
The Conservative MP went on to ask how many BBC staff and contractors were working at Glastonbury or on its coverage, if staff with the authority to cut Bob Vylan's live stream were present during their performance and whether ending the live stream was discussed mid-performance.
Dame Caroline then asked: 'At what level were the decisions made to not stream Kneecap live and to stream Bob Vylan live, but with a warning on screen?'
The letter asked if the BBC had a contingency plan for the event and who was responsible for forming and actioning the plan, before asking if the broadcaster would review its Editorial Guidelines and guidance for live output 'to ensure they are fit for live streaming'.
The Tory MP added: 'In summary, what is your personal assessment of what went wrong and what (are the) key lessons that the BBC will take away from the experience of live streaming Glastonbury 2025?'
Dame Caroline said she hoped for Mr Davie's response to the questions within two weeks.
Kneecap's performance at Glastonbury is also set to be investigated (Yui Mok/PA)
Avon and Somerset Police said it had launched a probe into both the Bob Vylan and Kneecap performances after reviewing video footage and audio recordings, with a senior detective appointed to lead the investigation.
A force spokesman said: 'This has been recorded as a public order incident at this time while our inquiries are at an early stage.
'The investigation will be evidence-led and will closely consider all appropriate legislation, including relating to hate crimes.'
In response to criticism of their performance on Tuesday, Bob Vylan said in a statement posted on Instagram that they were being 'targeted for speaking up' and that 'a good many people would have you believe a punk band is the number one threat to world peace.'
The statement said: 'We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people.
'We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine. A machine whose own soldiers were told to use 'unnecessary lethal force' against innocent civilians waiting for aid.
'A machine that has destroyed much of Gaza.'
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New Statesman
38 minutes ago
- New Statesman
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It is not totally homogenous: there are the elites literally at the peripheries, their clean and catered camps looming from on-high over the grounds (metaphor alert!); and there are attendees on the more feral end of the spectrum (who would think, may I ask, to pitch their tent one metre downstream of the busiest bathrooms on the grounds?). But in its total average, the Glastonbury crowd leans towards the staid, stable and rote. When Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform, turned down a chance to debate a Green Party leadership hopeful he said his team feared that Glastonbury would not be safe for him. This is fair – if he is afraid of seagulls or management consultants. 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Or redirect the national trajectory: abolishing the death penalty and legalising abortion. They can't anymore. And so here they are with me in Somerset, eating cheese toasties, worrying about seagulls and raging against a non-specified, shapeshifting machine. The ambient Remainer-ism of the past decade of Glastonbury has been traded for this slightly edgier cause, with spikier standard bearers (Kneecap, Bob Vylan). But the sense of a non-committal, window-dressing politik is the same. To fly a Palestine flag in front of the Other Stage during Franz Ferdinand's set is to say: yes, I am a Glastonbury Goer. Just as was the case with open borders in 2018 (prime-time bullshit, by the way, in a camp that has border walls resembling Trump's). But to interrogate the hard politics or even the logic of it all is to misunderstand the project. There are too many drugs to do for that. The worst place to have an ear infection is 41,000 feet over the Atlantic in Delta economy class. The second worst place to have an ear infection is during country/hip-hop crossover event Shaboozey's performance of 'Bar Song (Tipsy)' on Sunday afternoon. It was – like the set by rock band Terrorvision, the crowd at the Information Stage when the independent MP Zarah Sultana appeared, and the 'sound bath' I suffered through at the, er, Healing Fields – extraordinarily loud. But not merely content with the audial invasion, Glastonbury Festival endeavours to assault you with wall of visual noise too: 'PASTA,' a sign screams at me; 'REDUCE, REUSE [and, plot twist], RESPECT' rolls across a TV screen; a posh woman with a hat like I have never seen before (steampunk meets pheasant massacre) walks past; the firework budget alone for the five days I suspect could feed a medium-sized Cambodian town for a year; the lights at the Levels Stage, designed for the ecstasy brain, are too frenetic for the sober one. 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