Kneecap hit out at Rod Stewart and Kier Starmer at defiant Glastonbury 2025 set

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Kneecap have delivered an incendiary set at Glastonbury 2025 – check out everything that went down below.

READ MORE: Glastonbury 2025: Lorde secret set, Lewis Capaldi’s return and the biggest headlines from Friday

On Saturday (June 28), Irish rap trio Kneecap amassed a massive crowd to the West Holts stage. Earlier in the day, the BBC walked back its plans to stream the rap group’s performance on iPlayer. Just hours before they took the stage, the BBC said in a statement that while the group were still welcomed to perform, the set wouldn’t be streamed live and would instead be made available as an on-demand version after the set’s end.

Over a half hour ahead of Kneecap’s set, Glastonbury announced on social media that access to the West Holts stage had been cut off, signalling an already full-capacity crowd.

GRMA Glastonbury 🔥 pic.twitter.com/rTa9etqiOj

— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) June 28, 2025

A vast crowd with a countless Palestinian flags aloft packed out the arena as the trio arrived on stage to their usual message on the screen of “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people, aided by the UK government. Free Palestine.”

Then, an audio montage of newsreels of the band’s recent controversy was played included pundits calling the band “disgusting”, while another spat that “they’ll never make anything of their lives,” before rolling through complaints by politicians that called for their Glastonbury set to be cancelled before the voice of one of their most prominent critics, Sharon Osbourne, rang out: “Shame on Glastonbury, they have destroyed it with one pathetic band”.

After DJ Próvaí arrived on stage to whip the crowd into a frenzy, Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap soon followed embracing one another before they kicked into the single ‘Better Way To Live’, with Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten’s vocals being played over the PA.

“Glastonbury, I’m a free man,” declared Chara, nodding to being given unconditional bail from his first appearance on his terror charge. “Has anyone been watching the news?” he joked soon after, before leading a chant of “Free Mo Chara, free, free Mo Chara”.

“Mo Chara was in court this month,” said Bap. “Was anyone there? Mo Chara’s in court for a trumped up terrorism charge. It’s not the first time there was a miscarriage of justice for an Irish person in the British justice system”.

Chara then attacked the Daily Mail for their coverage, before the first of many attacks on Keir Starmer – who argued that it was “not appropriate” for the band to be appearing at Glastonbury: “The Prime Minister of your country said he didn’t want us to play, so fuck Keir Starmer.”

They also thanked Glastonbury organisers the Eavis family for standing by them, before debuting an untitled, trancey new song that they said was “about our feelings”.

New one. @KNEECAPCEOL #Glastonbury pic.twitter.com/EtoLaCGuEr

— Andrew Trendell (@AndrewTrendell) June 28, 2025

The court case came up again when Bap delivered the “disclaimer” that there should not be any “riots outside court” when Chara reappears at Westminster Magistrates on August 20, adding that focus should be on solidarity and “just support for Palestine”.

Chara added that the band “understand colonialism” under the foot of the British in Ireland, but added that the stress they’ve been going through was “nothing compared to the suffering of Palestinians”

“We were never bombed from the fucking sky,” he said of the Irish, adding that they’d also not experienced “kids being starved to death”. “There’s no fucking hiding it, Israel are war criminals,” he added.

Looking out at the sea of Palestinian flags being waved, Chara wished the BBC editor “good luck” with editing them out of the footage after it emerged that their set would not be streamed but should be uploaded to iPlayer later.

KNEECAP at Glastonbury 🇮🇪🇵🇸#FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/JHvzKdQiaW

— Laura 🖤🤍 (@lspark_89) June 28, 2025

“Anyone going to Rod Stewart?” asked Chara, jibing at tomorrow’s legend’s slot filler over his recent comments that people should “give Nigel Farage a chance”. “Did I miss something? The man’s older than Israel. Google it.” DJ Próvaí then called him “Rod the Prod”.

Kneecap then showed support for the Palestine Action group, who the UK government are looking to proscribe as a terrorist group. “Believe me, I know first hand what happens if you speak out against Palestine,” said Chara, while also looking back to their controversial Coachella appearance and argued that “everyone in the tent agreed” with his statements about Israel and Gaza and that “young people agree” the world over.

Another “fuck Keir Starmer” chant followed, along with “you’re just a shit Jeremy Corbyn”.

On their mission to use their music to revive the Irish (“a language no cunt speaks, not even at home,” they note) they said: “Everybody said it wouldn’t happen, now we’ve got 30,000 people at Glastonbury”.

Introducing the fan favourite ‘Get Your Brits Out’, Chara told the crowd:”We fucking love the English people, it’s the English government we can’t stand. Fuck Keir Starmer.”

The band ended by again thanking Glastonbury festival for their support of the band and for Palestine, with Bap stating: “One day it will controversial for the people that didn’t speak about Palestine,” with Chara agreeing: “remember those cunts, we will remember them”

After a feral crowd reaction to the closing trio of tracks ‘’Get Your Brits Out’, ‘H.O.O.D.’ and new single ‘The Recap’, Bap concluded: “We’ve said it before, the story isn’t about us. It’s about the genocide happening in Palestine. Free, free Palestine.”

Scenes.@KNEECAPCEOL #Glastonbury pic.twitter.com/jk0pIuXwXw

— Andrew Trendell (@AndrewTrendell) June 28, 2025

❤️❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/EPwPCtccDK

— Daniel Lambert (@dlLambo) June 28, 2025

“We wanna thank Glastonbury for standing by Kneecap, for standing for Palestine, for standing for the f*cking truth” @KNEECAPCEOL 🗣️ #Glastonbury2025 pic.twitter.com/uzZ6Tij0Hf

— The Rock Revival (@TheRockRevival_) June 28, 2025

Kneecap’s slot made headlines in the lead-up to Glasto, after several MPs, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer, called on the festival to pull the band from the line-up this weekend. Glasto co-organiser Emily Eavis responded by saying “everyone is welcome”, and her father, festival founder Michael Eavis added: “People that don’t agree with the politics of the event can go somewhere else!”

The controversy surrounding Kneecap’s set stems from their defiant pro-Palestinian remarks at Coachella in April. Since then, band member Mo Chara – real name Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – has been charged with a terror offence, for which he appeared in court last week and was released on unconditional bail.

On Thursday (June 26), the band shared a video reaffirming their pro-Palestine stance, asserting that “Kneecap is not the story. Genocide in Gaza is.”

So far, Glastonbury has seen a surprise set from Lorde – who performed her new album ‘Virgin’ in full (and scored a five star review in the process), a spunky set from Wet Leg, Lewis Capaldi’s triumphant return for a secret set at the Pyramid Stage, a surprise appearance by Peter Capaldi at Franz Ferdinand’s set and more.

The 1975 headlined the Pyramid Stage last night (June 27), earning a four-star review from NME, which read: “With their one show of the year, “The 1975 from the Internet” clear the decks on their career so far to deliver a reminder of their chops for tunes and showmanship away from the headlines.”

The weekend continues with Charli XCX, Deftones, Olivia Rodrigo, The Prodigy, Rod Stewart and many more. Check out the full line-up and schedule here.

In other news, the BBC have also confirmed that they will be streaming Neil Young‘s headline set, after all.

Check back at NME here for the latest news, reviews, interviews, photos and more from Glastonbury 2025.

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