{"id":2360927,"date":"2026-04-06T14:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T14:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2360927"},"modified":"2026-04-06T14:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T14:51:09","slug":"kanye-west-was-booked-as-a-festival-headliner-brands-are-now-pulling-their-sponsorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/kanye-west-was-booked-as-a-festival-headliner-brands-are-now-pulling-their-sponsorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Kanye West was booked as a festival headliner. Brands are now pulling their sponsorship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>LONDON<b> \u2014\u00a0<\/b><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/09\/02\/business\/pepsi-stock-activist\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pepsi\u00a0<\/a>and brewery company\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/07\/16\/business\/diageo-ceo-resignation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Diageo<\/a>\u00a0have withdrawn their sponsorship of the UK\u2019s 2026 Wireless Festival after it was announced that Kanye West would headline the three-day event.<\/p>\n<p>The rapper, who goes by the name Ye, has faced backlash in recent years after making repeated antisemitic and offensive remarks.<\/p>\n<p>Pepsi was the main sponsor of Wireless, which will be held in London\u2019s Finsbury Park from July 10-12.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPepsi has decided to withdraw its sponsorship of Wireless Festival,\u201d a company spokesperson told celebrity.land Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Diageo, which owns brands such as Guinness, Baileys, Smirnoff, Ciroc and Wireless partners Captain Morgan and Johnnie Walker, has also withdrawn its support for the festival.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have informed the organisers of our concerns and as it stands, Diageo will not sponsor the 2026 Wireless festival,\u201d a spokesperson for Diageo told celebrity.land.<\/p>\n<p>celebrity.land has reached out to Wireless Festival and other partners for comment.<\/p>\n<p>West \u2013 who previously said he had bipolar disorder before saying last year that he had been misdiagnosed and instead<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/02\/06\/entertainment\/kanye-west-autism\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0has autism<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 took out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal in January to apologize for his previous comments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI lost touch with reality. Things got worse the longer I ignored the problem. I said and did things I deeply regret,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIn that fractured state, I gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika, and even<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cnn.com\/2025\/02\/10\/business\/yeezy-nazi-tshirt\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0sold T-shirts<\/a>\u00a0bearing it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wireless is one of the UK\u2019s biggest music festivals, attracting up to 150,000 attendees each year.<\/p>\n<p>Festival organizers announced last week that West, who has not performed in the UK since headlining Glastonbury in 2015, will be the headliner for all three days of the festival, sparking controversy.<\/p>\n<p>UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was among those to condemn the move over the weekend, saying in a statement shared with celebrity.land: \u201cIt is deeply concerning that Kanye West has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The charity Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) has called for West to be banned from entering the UK.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Prime Minister is right to be deeply concerned that @WirelessFest wants to headline someone whose anti-Jewish bigotry has gone as far as recording a track titled \u2018Heil Hitler\u2019 less than a year ago,\u201d said CAA in a\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/antisemitism\/status\/2040757844786413712?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">post<\/a>\u00a0on X on Sunday, adding: \u201cBut the Prime Minister is not a bystander.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Government can ban anyone from entering the UK who is not a citizen and whose presence would \u2018not be conducive to the public good,\u201d CAA continued, adding: \u201cSurely this is a clear case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The move comes amid growing concern that antisemitism is on the rise in Britain.<\/p>\n<p>Last month,\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/03\/25\/uk\/jewish-volunteer-ambulances-arson-attack-intl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">British police arrested two men<\/a>\u00a0following a suspected\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/03\/22\/uk\/attack-ambulances-london-golders-green-intl-hnk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">antisemitic arson attack<\/a>, in which several ambulances belonging to a Jewish volunteer rescue organization were set on fire in London\u2019s largest Jewish community.<\/p>\n<p>The president of the community organization Board of Deputies of British Jews, Phil Rosenberg, issued a statement on Sunday, saying Wireless Festival \u201cshould not be profiteering from racism\u201d by inviting West to headline, adding that the \u201cdecision breaches Wireless\u2019s own charter\u201d on not tolerating discrimination.<\/p>\n<p>This is the latest controversy surrounding West in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>In July,\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/07\/02\/entertainment\/kanye-west-australia-visa-intl-scli\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the rapper had his Australian visa canceled<\/a>\u00a0after he released \u201cHeil Hitler,\u201d a song promoting Nazism.<\/p>\n<p>In 2022,\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/10\/28\/business\/adidas-gap-businesses-kanye-west\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Adidas, Balenciaga, TJ Maxx and Gap cut ties with West<\/a>, who is also a fashion designer, after he made antisemitic remarks and wore a shirt with the slogan \u201cWhite Lives Matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was also\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/videos\/us\/2023\/07\/31\/exp-kanye-west-back-on-twitter-073103aseg3-cnni-u-s-.cnn\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">suspended from X<\/a>\u00a0that year for violating its rules on inciting violence, but had his account reactivated in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>The-celebrity.land-Wire<br \/>\u2122 &amp; \u00a9 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ksltv.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LONDON \u2014\u00a0Pepsi\u00a0and brewery company\u00a0Diageo\u00a0have withdrawn their sponsorship of the UK\u2019s 2026 Wireless Festival after it was announced that Kanye West would headline the three-day event. The rapper, who goes by the name Ye, has faced backlash in recent years after making repeated antisemitic and offensive remarks. Pepsi was the main sponsor of Wireless, which will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2360928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2360927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Kanye-West-was-booked-as-a-festival-headliner-Brands-are.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2360927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2360929,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360927\/revisions\/2360929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2360928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2360927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2360927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2360927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}