Will Kneecap perform at upcoming festivals?

The First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney, has backed calls for Kneecap to be axed from Glasgow’s TRNSMT music festival this summer.

Speaking at the Scottish Trades Union Congress in Dundee, John Swinney said the band’s alleged comments had “crossed a line” and were “beyond the pale”.

There has also been a call by two MPs for the group to be removed from the Glastonbury Festival line-up in June.

In a letter to Sir Michael Eavis, a co-creator of the festival, Labour MP David Taylor said it would be “deeply troubling” to see the band performing at the event.

North Antrim MP and leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) Jim Allister has written to organisers of the Glastonbury Festival asking them to drop Kneecap from the festival.

He said that it was “wholly unacceptable for a mainstream, UK-wide cultural event to be seen to endorse — even by implication — messages of political violence and terror glorification”.

The band are listed to play on the Saturday of this year’s festival.

A BBC spokesperson said: “As the broadcast partner, the BBC will be bringing audiences extensive music coverage from Glastonbury, with artists booked by the festival organisers.”

“The Glastonbury broadcast plans will be considered in the coming weeks, and all output will adhere to our editorial guidelines,” they added.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for a German concert promoter and event producer, FKP GmbH, said Kneecap “will not be performing at Hurricane or Southside festival this year” in the country.

On Monday, the daughter of a Conservative MP who was stabbed to death at a constituency surgery said the rap group should apologise.

Katie Amess, whose father Sir David Amess was an MP when he was murdered in 2021, said she was “gobsmacked at the stupidity of somebody or a group of people being in the public eye and saying such dangerous, violent rhetoric”.

Ms Amess said she would be prepared to meet Kneecap and have a conversation with them.

“If they are willing to listen to how my life has been obliterated and will never be the same, for them to say those words is obviously very triggering,” she said.

Last week, TV personality Sharon Osbourne said the group should have their United States work visas revoked after they ended their set at Coachella, an annual music festival in California, with pro-Palestinian messages.

Ms Osbourne said that Kneecap “took their performance to a different level by incorporating aggressive political statements”.

When asked by BBC News NI for response, the band said: “Statements aren’t aggressive, murdering 20,000 children is though.”