Slovakia music festival cancelled after outcry over Kanye West performance

Slovakian rap festival Rubicon has been cancelled “due to external pressure and logistical challenges” after protests calling for Kanye West to be dropped from the lineup.

The festival, scheduled for later this month in Bratislava, was billed as the only confirmed gig in Europe that the controversial American rapper would be performing at this year.

“It’s with regret that we announce Rubicon Festival will not take place this year. This was not an easy decision. Due to media pressure and the withdrawal of several artists and partners, we were unable to deliver the festival at the standard of quality you deserve,” the festival’s organisers said.

“This is not the end of Rubicon. We are not giving up. We’re already working to come back stronger.”

People who had purchased tickets for the festival would be refunded in 14 days, the organisers said.

The American rapper also known as Ye, 47, has courted controversy over the past few years by sharing posts on his social media of Nazi imagery and symbolism as well as by making antisemitic remarks.

On 8 May, the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, he released a new track called “Heil Hitler” which was criticised for glorifying the Nazi leader.

The song was banned in Germany and removed from almost all streaming and social media platforms but spread through X, racking up millions of views.

In June, after Rubicon announced West’s appearance, protest groups like Peace for Ukraine Civic Association and Cities for Democracy organised a petition calling it “unacceptable that Bratislava should be the only city in Europe to provide a venue” for West’s performance, “not because of his musical expression, but because of his dangerous public attitudes, which are in direct contradiction to European memory and historical responsibility”.

More than 6,000 people signed the petition, which described the rapper’s forthcoming performance as “an insult to historical memory, a glorification of war violence and a humiliation of all victims of the Nazi regime”.

The festival was set to run from 18 to 20July and feature performances by American rappers Offset and Sheck Wes.

Earlier this month, the Australian government revoked West’s visa to enter the country. “He's been coming to Australia for a long time. He’s got family here. And he’s made a lot of offensive comments that my officials looked at again once he released the Heil Hitler song and he no longer has a valid visa in Australia,” home minister Tony Burke told the ABC.

“We have enough problems in this country already without deliberately importing bigotry.”

West’s wife, Bianca Censori, is originally from Australia and has family living in Melbourne.

In May this year, a concert featuring West in South Korea was cancelled over what organisers described merely as “recent controversies”.

In April, West showed up to an interview released on Rumble by internet personality DJ Akademiks dressed in a black Ku Klux Klan outfit. The hour-long conversation saw him make several controversial comments about other individuals in the music industry.

Later the same month, West was banned from streaming platform Twitch merely seven minutes into his first stream as he began a speech that included several slurs about the Jewish and the LGBT+ communities.

His Yeezy website, which used the backend platform Shopify, was deactivated by the company after it was found to be selling T-shirts featuring Swastikas.