{"id":254693,"date":"2026-04-06T09:21:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T08:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=254693"},"modified":"2026-04-06T09:21:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T08:21:05","slug":"pepsi-and-diageo-withdraw-sponsorship-of-uks-wireless-festival-as-kanye-west-booking-sparks-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/pepsi-and-diageo-withdraw-sponsorship-of-uks-wireless-festival-as-kanye-west-booking-sparks-backlash\/","title":{"rendered":"Pepsi and Diageo withdraw sponsorship of UK’s Wireless Festival as Kanye West booking sparks backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pepsi<\/strong> and Diageo<\/strong> have withdrawn their sponsorship of London’s Wireless Festival<\/strong> following a wave of political condemnation over the event’s decision to book Ye<\/strong> (formerly Kanye West<\/strong>) as its sole headliner for all three nights this summer.<\/p>\n

Pepsi<\/strong>, which had served as the festival’s headline sponsor since 2015<\/strong> under the branding “Pepsi MAX Presents Wireless,” confirmed its withdrawal on Sunday (April 5). “Pepsi has decided to withdraw its sponsorship of Wireless Festival,” the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Hours later, spirits giant Diageo<\/strong> \u2014 parent company of the Johnnie Walker<\/strong> and Captain Morgan<\/strong> brands \u2014 followed suit. “We have informed the organizers of our concerns, and as it stands, Diageo will not sponsor the 2026<\/strong> Wireless festival,” said a company spokesperson.<\/p>\n

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The sponsorship withdrawals came after Ye<\/strong> was announced on Monday (March 30) as the headliner of all three nights of Wireless 2026<\/strong>, scheduled for July 10\u201312<\/strong> at Finsbury Park<\/strong> in north London. The booking was billed as a “three-night journey through his most iconic records,” and marked the first time no other headliners were announced alongside him. Ticket presales were due to begin on Tuesday (April 7) via Ticketmaster<\/strong>, with general on-sale the following day.<\/p>\n

The announcement drew swift criticism from senior UK<\/strong> political figures. Prime Minister Keir Starmer<\/strong>, in a statement to The Sun<\/em>, said: “It is deeply concerning Kanye West has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism.<\/p>\n

“Antisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted firmly wherever it appears. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe.”<\/p>\n

London<\/strong> Mayor Sadiq Khan<\/strong> distanced City Hall from the booking on Wednesday (April 1). “We are clear that the past comments and actions of this artist are offensive and wrong, and are simply not reflective of London’s values,” said a spokesperson for the Mayor. “This was a decision taken by the festival organizers and not one that City Hall is involved in.”<\/p>\n

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Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey<\/strong> went further on Thursday (April 2), calling for Ye<\/strong> to be banned from entering the UK<\/strong> altogether. “We need to get tougher on antisemitism,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Jewish Leadership Council<\/strong> called the booking “deeply irresponsible” in a statement to The Guardian<\/em>, adding: “West has repeatedly used his platform to spread antisemitism and pro-Nazi messaging \u2026 Any venue or festival should reconsider before providing their platform to Kanye West to spread his antisemitism.”<\/p>\n

With Pepsi<\/strong> and Diageo<\/strong> now out, attention has turned to the festival’s remaining sponsors. As of Sunday evening, PayPal<\/strong>, Budweiser<\/strong> and Beatbox<\/strong> were among those yet to issue a response. Rockstar Energy Drink<\/strong>, which is owned by PepsiCo<\/strong> in the UK<\/strong>, is also expected to withdraw, though this had not been confirmed at the time of writing.<\/p>\n

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There also remains the question of whether Ye<\/strong> will be granted permission to enter the UK<\/strong>. As a US<\/strong> citizen, he would require clearance to perform. Australia<\/strong> revoked his visa in July 2025<\/strong> after he released a track titled Heil Hitler<\/em> in May of that year, with the country’s Home Affairs Minister saying the government would not “deliberately import bigotry.”<\/p>\n

The 48<\/strong>-year-old published a full-page apology in The Wall Street Journal<\/em> in January, attributing his behavior to a “four-month-long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior” linked to a brain condition. He has yet to make any public statements of contrition in anything other than written form.<\/p>\n

Wireless<\/strong> is organized by Festival Republic<\/strong>, a subsidiary of Live Nation Entertainment<\/strong>. The festival had positioned Ye<\/strong> as its only announced act ahead of ticket on-sale, following Drake<\/strong>‘s three-night headline residency at the event in 2025<\/strong>. Ye<\/strong> last performed in the UK<\/strong> at Glastonbury<\/strong> in 2015<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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The corporate exodus around Ye<\/strong> echoes the 2022<\/strong> wave of partnership terminations that followed his antisemitic remarks, when Adidas<\/strong>, creative agency CAA<\/strong>, and others severed ties with the artist<\/a>. Adidas<\/strong> said at the time that it expected the immediate termination of its Yeezy partnership to have a negative impact of up to \u20ac250 million<\/strong> on the company’s net income.<\/p>\n

Live Nation<\/strong>, whose UK festival portfolio accounts for over 25%<\/strong> of UK<\/strong> festivals with a capacity above 5,000<\/strong>, according to data from the Association of Independent Festivals<\/strong>, has faced scrutiny over its market dominance<\/a> in the country’s live sector. The company’s CEO, Michael Rapino<\/strong>, told investors late last year that he expected 2026<\/strong> to be “back to kind of a normalized year across all of our platforms”<\/a> following what he described as a “digestion” period in 2025<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Festival Republic<\/strong> had not issued a public response to the sponsor withdrawals at the time of writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“We have informed the organizers of our concerns, and as it stands, Diageo will not sponsor the 2026 Wireless festival,” said a company spokesperson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254693"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254695,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254693\/revisions\/254695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}