{"id":423049,"date":"2026-04-06T16:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/423049\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T16:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:14:07","slug":"two-more-sponsors-pull-back-from-kanye-wests-wireless-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/423049\/","title":{"rendered":"Two More Sponsors Pull Back From Kanye West’s Wireless Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe scheduled three-night headlining appearance by Ye, formerly Kanye West, <\/a>at July\u2019s Wireless Festival<\/a> in London is only growing in controversy. The festival\u2019s primary sponsor, Pepsi<\/a>, announced Sunday that it is withdrawing from its decade-plus co-branding with Wireless, and was followed later in the day by Diageo, owner of the Johnnie Walker and Captain Morgan alcohol brands, stating that it too was pulling out of its sponsorship. Although the statement did not mention the rapper by name, it came hours after Ye\u2019s booking was roundly condemned by the U.K.\u2019s prime minister, Keir Starmer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Monday, two more sponsors pulled back, with sources telling Variety that Rockstar is withdrawing its sponsorship, and the BBC<\/a> reported that Paypal will no longer allow its branding to be used, although it apparently has not pulled out completely. <\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, all of the brands were still present on the festival\u2019s website<\/a> as of Monday morning (April 6). Remaining festival sponsors include Budweiser, Beatbox and Drip. <\/p>\n

\n\tEither way, the festival\u2019s future seems to be in question. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe festival had officially been known as \u201cPepsi MAX Presents Wireless,\u201d as part of a partnership that had been in place since 2015. Although many music fans welcomed Ye\u2019s return to the stage there, Pepsi had also widely tagged in outraged tweets protesting the company\u2019s apparent support for him as sole headliner<\/p>\n

\n\tPrime Minister Starmer had made it clear that he, for one, was not ready to normalize Kanye West<\/a> yet, now that the hip-hop superstar is seemingly returning to touring business as usual in other countries.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is deeply concerning Kanye West has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism,\u201d Starmer said in a statement to the British newspaper the Sun. \u201cAntisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted firmly wherever it appears. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStarmer was not the first political figure in the U.K. to raise an objection to the scheduled London appearance by Ye. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey expressed his view Thursday that Ye should be banned from entering the U.K., saying that \u201cwe need to get tougher on antisemitism.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd London mayor Sadiq Khan on Wednesday made statements distancing the city\u2019s government from the festival at Finsbury Park on July 10-12. \u201cWe are clear that the past comments and actions of this artist are offensive and wrong, and are simply not reflective of London\u2019s values,\u201d a spokesperson for the Mayor said. \u201cThis was a decision taken by the festival organizers and not one that City Hall is involved in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe alarm in some circles overseas follows what is being seen as the beginning of a successful comeback by Ye in the U.S. He just played two nights at SoFi Stadium in the Los Angeles area, where he was joined by guest stars including Lauryn Hill, Travis Scott and Don Toliver, performing from atop a giant half-globe in the middle of the enormous venue.<\/p>\n

\n\tYe published a full-page apology ad in the Wall Street Journal<\/a> in January, acknowledging disturbing behavior that has made him a pariah in recent years. The hip-hop titan said in the ad that he has been getting treatment for a brain condition after last year suffering \u201ca four-month-long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe followed that with an interview in Vanity Fair expressing similar sentiments of contrition. However, the magazine acknowledged that the Q&A was conducted by email and not live, leading some to believe ad advisor was writing the answers for him, on top of suspicions that the WSJ ad may have been ghost-written as well. Ye has yet to make any of these penitent statements in anything other than written form.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt has been less than a year since Ye released the song \u201cHeil Hitler,\u201d which was banned from all major streaming platforms when it came out last May. He subsequently announced he was \u201cdone with antisemitism\u201d and issued a new version of \u201cHeil Hitler,\u201d now renamed \u201cHallelujah,\u201d with references to Nazism changed to Christian lyrics. Previously in 2025, he had sold swastika T-shirts on the web before the site was taken down.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere was some thought that Ye might address the issues in his SoFi Stadium appearances, but he stuck to the tenor of triumph. \u201c\u201cThat\u2019s what 80,000 people sound like, ladies and gentlemen,\u201d he told the crowd at his second SoFi show on Friday. \u201cThey said I\u2019d never be back in the States. Two sold-out concerts, baby!\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tHe also told the audience, \u201cI want to thank y\u2019all for sticking by me all these years. Through the hard times, through the low times. I love you for that.\u201d The SoFi Stadium shows were his first substantial U.S. solo shows in five years.<\/p>\n

\n\tYe\u2019s three-night appearance at the Wireless Festival are being billed as his first U.K. appearance in 11 years. Some Jewish leaders in the U.K. immediately slammed the booking as \u201cdeeply irresponsible,\u201d like the Jewish Leadership Council, which said in a statement to the Guardian, \u201cWest has repeatedly used his platform to spread antisemitism and pro-Nazi messaging \u2026 Any venue or festival should reconsider before providing their platform to Kanye West to spread his antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPepsi has been prominent on the Wireless Festival branding as the \u201cheadline partner,\u201d but the festival website also lists a number of other \u201cpartners\u201d that may find themselves under similar pressure to stand with or against the Ye booking, including PayPal, Rockstar Energy Drink, Budweiser, Johnnie Walker, Drip, Beatbox, Drip and Big Green Coach. As of this writing none had yet followed Pepsi in staking a position.<\/p>\n

\n\tYe\u2019s latest album, \u201cBully,\u201d was announced as debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart when results were announced Sunday. Critics have noted the album is on the benign side for the artist, as controversial lyrics go, without any of the disturbing content that made its way into recent projects like \u201cVultures 1,\u201d his 2024 collaboration with Ty Dolla $ign, which debuted at No. 1, or his unreleased but leaked 2025 \u201cCuck\u201d project, which was to have included the withdrawn \u201cHeil Hitler\u201d single.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The scheduled three-night headlining appearance by Ye, formerly Kanye West, at July\u2019s Wireless Festival in London is only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,18,117,19,17,12553,5446,59029,188765],"class_list":{"0":"post-423049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-kanye-west","14":"tag-keir-starmer","15":"tag-pepsi","16":"tag-wireless-festival"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116358654523202108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}