Christopher BarrettOne of the most controversial acts of recent times, Kneecap have remained firmly in the eye of the storm about artists’ freedom of speech since they played Coachella early this year. Ahead of LIVE publishing industry guidance on the booking of politically outspoken artists, Kneecap’s manager Dan Lambert spoke to Access about the impact on the band, their career, and the ongoing relationship with festival promoters and the wider music industry.
For Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap, 2025 kicked off with an explosive reaction to the band’s set at Coachella, which involved pro-Palestinian imagery. The fallout saw the band part ways with their US agents, and being dropped from festivals including AEG’s Eden Sessions and German festivals Hurricane and Southside.
Despite a huge backlash that even saw prime minister Keir Starmer chip in with a call for Kneecap to be removed from Glastonbury Festival’s lineup, the event’s team stuck with them despite also receiving a letter, signed by a large group of senior music industry figures, also calling for the band to be pulled. Among the other events to keep Kneecap on the bill were the UK’s Wide Awake and Green Man festivals.
The band have now been booked for some of Europe’s biggest festivals next year, including the 77,000-capacity Boomtown Fair and Primavera Sound Barcelona (75,000). Despite that high profile support, Kneecap is far from having an easy time of it. They are unable to play in Canada or the US and are banned in Hungary, and in the UK a chief magistrate has thrown out a terrorism charge against bandmember Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh for allegedly displaying a Hezbollah flag at a gig, but the Crown Prosecution Service is to appeal.
The band’s manager since 2019, Dan Lambert has an MA in International Conflict & Security from Dublin University, and went on to work for the Irish Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs in the Conflict & Resolution Unit. The first time Lambert saw Kneecap live was at a fundraising show for Palestine in a Dublin café in 2017. The gig attracted an audience of 24.
From the outset, Kneecap have been politically motivated, and their manager says no amount of pressure will change that. He explains that the band are very much a product of their environment: “If you go through West Belfast, where the lads are from, at the end of the streets are murals of people who’ve been killed by the British Army, or an image of a Palestinian or Irish flag. Whereas in most major Western European cities it would be an ad for Gucci or Adidas, in Belfast you see images of people who are revered for what they stood for, not what they have acquired.”
Are you or the band concerned about the opportunities lost as a result of Kneecap’s political stance, and the measures against them by authorities and the music industry?
We’ve been lucky. We’re blessed that our record label Heavenly [Recordings] and [co-founder] Jeff Barrett have stood by Kneecap, but many other artists are being told not to speak out by publishers, management, booking agents and labels, because those people care about making money. With Kneecap, the lads don’t come for money, they’re properly working class people, and their morals are more important to them than money. That created this unique environment. It may be different for another act, and there’s nothing wrong with that, because they need to live and to pay rent, but the lads were never willing to compromise. With Kneecap, they can’t lose because they’re not willing to back down. They’re very sure who they are, and that’s why they’re willing to do it. That’s a great position to occupy, if you can, when you know you’re doing what’s right, and you’re not willing to relent in any way.
“[Kneecap’s] morals are more important to them than money.”
While Kneecap were removed from some festival bills this year, the likes of Green Man and Glastonbury stuck with them. They have now been booked by some of Europe’s biggest festivals for 2026. Do you feel that festival operators have largely been supportive of Kneecap and their right to express their beliefs?
They had a very public question to answer this year. The biggest of all was Glastonbury. I have a huge respect for the Eavis family and everyone at Glastonbury. I think they had a hell of a lot more to lose by taking Kneecap off the bill, but I don’t think that’s the reason they didn’t. This year, booking Kneecap is a very different decision to make, because you know you’re going to have a lot of pressure, perhaps from sponsors but definitely from the Zionist lobby. So that’s a different place to start from, and we’ll find out how that looks pretty quickly as our 2026 bookings come in. We got a massive booking from Primavera, which was announced early, and after that a lot more came in. So, I think there are a lot of people waiting to see. There will definitely be a lot of people who feel they don’t need the attention.
Is there any indication that the intensity of the campaign against Kneecap will lessen?
No. The British government has appealed to the High Court on the terrorism charge. We are banned from Canada, can’t go into America at the moment, can’t play in Germany because of threats, and can’t play Hungary. It’s wild.
Is there anyone helping to fight your corner?
Massive Attack have set up a group and there are lawyers there who are willing to give free advice. They’re the best people we’ve met, that team is unbelievably strategic, resource smart, and have total integrity in what they do.
The legal route is the one that lands the heaviest. We’ve got a really good legal team in Northern Ireland, and they’ve issued hundreds of legal letters that deconstruct the argument to cancel us. That reflects the level of support for Kneecap in Belfast; these lawyers want to help Kneecap because they see them as representing what that community represents.
“The world is rapidly becoming authoritarian.”
With soaring costs, it’s difficult enough for touring artists and festivals at a grassroots level. There are industry schemes to support the grassroots sector. Do you feel that politically outspoken artists are in danger of missing out on these opportunities?
Yes. The UK Government has said that Kneecap is not going to receive more grants, first the Conservatives and now Labour. It’s totally illegal. We got a Music Export grant, which we applied for via our label, of £15,000, to help a US tour a couple of years ago. That was then withheld. The reason it was withheld, according to Kemi Badenoch, was because Kneecap oppose the [UK] union. They do. That’s their political right under the Good Friday Agreement, to oppose British rule in Ireland. So we sued them and won. The band gave the money away.
The Government has said Kneecap won’t receive any funding at all, and they’ve even said no National Lottery money for some reason. There’s an anti-Irish element, but there’s also a class element, where they see them as working-class people who they don’t respect.
The world is rapidly becoming authoritarian, and no one seems to be doing anything about it. That’s a bigger problem. We’re banned from Canada because one guy put out a Twitter video, it’s not on a legal basis. Kneecap is also banned from Hungary, which is illegal under EU law.
Should artists continue to be supported if they speak out? Definitely. But I think the institutions themselves are inherently under the control of governments who are now authoritarian, and who will shut that down.
This article is included in the latest edition of Access All Areas magazine.