SA expat flies hostage flag high at Glastonbury

Tarryn*, a London-based South African expat, proudly flew Nova festival and yellow ribbon hostage flags at the Glastonbury Festival this past weekend in the face of blatant antisemitism. Glastonbury, the United Kingdom’s largest summer music festival, held this year from 25 to 29 June, faces criticism following the performances of Bob Vylan and Kneecap, who used the event as a platform for hate speech.

Speaking of Glastonbury’s immense size – more than six million square metres with more than 200 000 people in attendance – Tarryn says the festival is like a mini city with multiple stages. “Just like any big city, there are some places you need to avoid,” she says. “Everyone I spoke to who was Jewish made sure to give Kneecap’s performance a wide berth.”

Still, when Tarryn caught the tail-end of people leaving the performance of this pro-Palestinian Irish rap group, it “wasn’t entirely pleasant”, she says. “As I was walking to another stage, there was a group with Palestinian flags, and when it dawned on me where they had just come from, it made me feel uneasy”.

Tarryn says she and her friends weren’t directly exposed to English punk rap duo Bob Vylan, who chanted “Death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]” during their performance. Countless attendees echoed their calls as the incident was streamed live on the BBC. Facing backlash, the BBC expressed “regret” over the “unacceptable” incident, and Glastonbury organisers say the chants “very much crossed a line”.

“Most of us didn’t really know there were people vying for our blood until friends and family from around the world texted to check up on us,” Tarryn says. “It felt like a dark cloud had suddenly set upon our magical festival.”

Since their controversial performance, Bob Vylan have been dropped by their agents, UTA Agency, and the United States State Department revoked their visas ahead of their upcoming US tour. Bob Vylan has also been dropped from the lineup at upcoming music festivals in Manchester and Cologne.

Allowing Kneecap to perform at Glastonbury after a member was charged with terrorism for the public display of a Hezbollah flag in 2024, also sparked debate. When Kneecap took to the stage, they led chants of “Free Palestine!” and unleashed expletives at British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Both Bob Vylan and Kneecap’s performances now face a criminal investigation.

Tarryn first attended Glastonbury in June 2023, but she and her friends considered cancelling their 2024 tickets in the wake of the 7 October 2023 massacre. However, they soon realised that showing up and waving flags was vital. “There has never been a more important time in my life for Jewish people to find their voice,” Tarryn said at the time. She was speaking at a London-based weekly vigil for the hostages, one she attends regularly.

Tarryn says she and her friends were blown away by the response they received at last year’s festival. The images of their double flag went viral, she says, “signalling to people around the globe, that though Glastonbury refused to acknowledge a massacre at a music festival, we weren’t going to stay silent”.

“It also got so much love from a community which was still reeling from the pain yet had to face overt hostility at the festival. This year, we wanted to replicate this positivity and make sure that the hostages remain front and centre of everyone’s minds.” Pictures of her flags again went viral.

Though she and her friends decided that an Israeli flag would be widely recognisable and therefore too risky, Tarryn says their hostage flags received only love and gratitude. “We even found a few allies, which was wonderful and made me remember the silent majority.

“One of them told us how he was brainwashed at university and used to be anti-Israel until he started scratching below the surface. He was taught that Israel was an apartheid state but was confused to learn about the two million Arabs living there. He said the major turning point was on 7 October.” Seeing terrorists livestreaming the attacks on social media turned him into a staunch overnight advocate. At Glastonbury, he wore a Batman T-shirt in memory of the murdered Bibas family.

Aside from the hate speech spewed by Bob Vylan and Kneecap, Tarryn says a more direct festival encounter brought her to tears. “What finally broke me was when I came across a man with a gas mask holding a ‘Free Palestine’ flag. Of course, I want the suffering of innocent Palestinians to end. Yet, when in the past century millions of us were sent to gas chambers while the world turned its back on our genocide, this inversion was all too much.”

Tarryn says she’s only now learning about what happened on stage and how nothing was done to stop it. “It makes me sick. You’ll see posters plastered across the festival about inclusivity, but apparently, that’s not for us. The organisers knew they were giving a mouthpiece to a band that openly promotes terror. And we all know this would never be allowed to happen to any other ethnic minority.”

Nevertheless, she didn’t feel physically at risk. “Apart from a very noisy and hateful minority, most people are there to leave their worries behind and enjoy the magic that the festival brings,” she says.

Though she felt let down by those who allow antisemitism to fester and disgusted by those pretending to care about humanity “except for us”, Tarryn says there’s no space for hate, only hope. “So, I wiped away my tears, stood up, held onto that flag tightly, and reminded myself that 50 hostages and their families are going through unimaginable suffering.

“Since 7 October, I have seen how antisemitism can be cloaked as anti-Zionism. With such a small Jewish population and so much hateful propaganda, we all need to stand up. And we need our allies to join us. We all know the Holocaust didn’t start with gas chambers, but words.”

*Tarryn asked that her surname be withheld to protect her safety and future career prospects.