Wireless Boss Asks for “Forgiveness” for Ye as Pepsi, Diageo and PayPal Walk Away

Wireless Festival is standing by Ye, and its sponsors are not. A day after Pepsi, Diageo and Rockstar Energy dropped out and PayPal pulled its branding, organizer Melvin Benn issued a personal statement on Monday (April 6) confirming that the rapper will stay on the bill for all three nights of this summer’s festival in London.

“Ye’s music is played on commercial radio stations in this country,” Benn wrote, according to Pitchfork. “It is available via live streams and downloads in this country without comment or vitriol from anyone and he has a legal right to come into the country and to perform in this country. He is intended to come in and perform.” He added, “Forgiveness and giving people a second chance are becoming a lost virtue in this ever-increasing divisive world.”

How the sponsors left

News broke Sunday (April 5) that Pepsi, the festival’s main sponsor since 2015, was out, XXL reported; Pepsi confirmed that it “has decided to withdraw its sponsorship of Wireless Festival.” Diageo, the company behind Guinness and Smirnoff, told The Independent: “We have informed the organisers of our concerns and as it stands, Diageo will not sponsor the 2026 Wireless festival.” Rockstar Energy also withdrew, and the festival’s website was still billed “Pepsi MAX Presents Wireless” as its partners page disappeared, Rolling Stone noted.

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None of the brands named Ye in its statement. The timing, though, lines up with a harder-edged one from Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He told The Sun:

It is deeply concerning Kanye West has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism. Antisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted firmly wherever it appears.

Keir Starmer, Pitchfork, quoting The Sun

Tory MP Chris Philp and Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey have called for Ye to be banned from England entirely, Pitchfork reported. London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s office said Ye’s past comments “are simply not reflective of London’s values” and stressed that “this was a decision taken by the festival organizers and not one that City Hall is involved in.”

The background

The criticism stems from Ye’s past antisemitic remarks, including a 2025 post on X in which he called himself a “Nazi” and praised Adolf Hitler. In January, he took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal to apologize, writing, “I love Jewish people,” and attributing his behavior to bipolar disorder and an untreated frontal lobe injury from a 2002 car crash. This was his first full mainstream push since then: Bully arrived in March, and a nostalgia-heavy comeback tour has featured guests including Lauryn Hill and North West.

His defense did not hold. The next day, the U.K. Home Office rescinded Ye’s travel authorization and the festival was cancelled outright, with refunds for ticket holders.

The episode left a sour mark on Bully’s rollout, which had already seen James Blake ask to be taken off its closing track and a public promise that it uses no AI.

Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.