Boardmasters’ licence is at risk over Bob Vylan’s performance

Following Bob Vylan‘s performance at Boardmasters 2025, the festival’s licence is at risk.

The punk rap duo’s spot on the bill at the Cornwall festival proved controversial, with hundreds calling for them to be dropped from the line-up following a series of controversial comments made onstage at Glastonbury back in June.

While performing at Worthy Farm, Bobby Vylan made headlines for leading chants of “free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the IDF”. The group later clarified that they “are not for the death of Jews or Arabs or any other race or group”.

Now, the BBC have reported Boardmasters could lose its licence at a review next week, with other options set to be heard at Cornwall Council’s licensing hearing on Wednesday (September 17) include modifying the festival’s conditions and suspending the licence for up to three months.

Bob Vylan take to the Boardmasters stage and say “Fuck England and its terrible foreign policy.”
They told the crowd earlier on: “Reform UK didn’t want us here but we’re here. Fuck em.” pic.twitter.com/pJoWZEa9ki

— Lee Trewhela 〓〓 (@LeeTrewhela) August 10, 2025

Hundreds of people were said to have called on the council to ban Bob Vylan from the festival, which, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, it had no power to do.

The application to review Boardmasters’ licence came from Andrea Lovett, who told the council in July their inclusion on the bill undermined the licensing objectives, writing: “Boardmasters Festival has a history of safety and crowd management challenges, notably in 2024 when a crowd surge resulted in seven hospitalisations, and a Cornwall Council health and safety officer raised ‘serious concerns’ about crowd management, traffic and welfare facilities being ‘overwhelmed’.

“The inclusion of an act under investigation for inflammatory conduct heightens these risks, potentially exacerbating tensions or disorder.”

However, Devon and Cornwall Police said they were satisfied with measures put in place by festival organisers , while Cornwall Council’s child protection department had no concerns after safeguarding checks.

During their set at the festival in August, the band dismissed calls from far-right party Reform for them to be taken off the line-up. “You know they didn’t want us here, right?” frontman Bobby Vylan said (via Cornwall Live).

Prior to the festival kicking off, campaign manager for Reform UK in Cornwall Andrea Hogan had warned that the band’s “toxic rhetoric” would “tarnish” the event.

“Reform UK didn’t want us here with you, Boardmasters. But fuck Reform, and here we are,” he said, admitting it was “a bit of a battle” to get there. “Some of your local MPs didn’t want us here. Some Zionist lobby groups didn’t want us here because we speak the truth. Because we will not and cannot be silenced.

“Because we dare to take this stage and say ‘Fuck England and its terrible foreign policy’. Because we dare to say ‘Fuck the Israeli Government and the atrocity, and their crimes of genocide that they are committing’ and because we dare to say ‘Free Free Palestine’.”

After weathering a series of controversies this summer, well as being dropped by their agency, Bob Vylan have had their US visas revoked and are currently under criminal investigation over the performance at Glastonbury.

In light of that, the band recently told fans, “after all the attempts to silence us, we’re about to be louder than ever,” and announced the ‘We Won’t Go Quietly’ 2025 UK tour, which will see them hit the road this November.

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