Festival boss asks public to forgive Kanye West as he defends booking 'anti-semitic' rapper for Wireless amid growing backlash

By PATRICK HARRINGTON, UK NEWS REPORTER Published: 20:49, 6 April 2026 | Updated: 20:59, 6 April 2026 The boss of Wireless Festival has asked the public to 'forgive' Kanye West as he defended booking the disgraced rapper as a headliner. Several of the festival's sponsors have withdrawn amid growing fury at the booking, and the Prime Minister even spoke out against it. But Melvin Benn, Managing Director at Festival Republic, the company behind Wireless, has refused to back down - explaining he overcame initial feelings of 'disgust' at the idea of West performing. He said in a statement this evening that 'forgiveness and giving people a second chance'  and urged people to reconsider their knee-jerk reaction. This is a breaking news story, refresh for updates  Wireless Festival has come under intense fire for booking Kanye West as a headliner No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.