Festival apologises for taking Palestinian flag away

The Mary Wallopers protested with the flag after their microphones had been turned off

A music festival has apologised after a band had its microphones turned off after it displayed a Palestinian flag on stage.

Irish folk group The Mary Wallopers were performing at Victorious Festival in Portsmouth on Friday, where organisers said they had used a chant "widely understood to have a discriminatory context".

The band denied the claim, asked for the festival to retract its statement and released footage of the performance on Instagram.

The festival said while it supported artists' right to "freely express their views from the stage, within the law", it did not allow flags "for wider event management and safety reasons".

The video appears to show the band and the audience shouting, "free Palestine", and initial confusion after the Palestinian flag was taken away by a festival worker.

In a statement, the festival said it did not "handle the explanation of [its] policies sensitively or far enough in advance to allow a sensible conclusion to be reached".

It added it now accepted the audience could not hear any comments made after the band's microphones were turned off.

"The Mary Wallopers are a fantastic band, and we were very much looking forward to their performance on Friday," organisers added.

"We are in the business of putting on great shows, not cutting them off, and this is the last thing we wanted – for the band, their fans and ourselves."

Organisers also said they would make a "substantial donation to humanitarian relief efforts for the Palestinian people".

Bands including The Last Dinner Party, who said they were "outraged" by Friday's events, and The Academic said they would not be playing the festival.

Kaiser Chiefs and Madness performed on Friday, with Kings of Leon set to headline on Sunday.