Artists boycotting Download announce fundraiser for Palestine

Now these groups have organised a replacement show for June 14, when many of them were due to play at Download. The concert will take place at Centrala in Birmingham, just under an hour from Download's grounds. Speed, Scowl, Zulu and Pest Control will be there, as well as Brighton punks Ikhras, in addition to local Birmingham groups Cauldron and Transistrrr.

Pest Control announced the show on social media, sharing: “Hardcore is solidarity, unity and always anti-fascist. Alternative music is inherently political. What's the point of playing aggressive music if you're not angry about the right things?”, adding: “I'm grateful to the family for standing up for something.”

Download Festival is just a few days away and every day more artists are joining the boycott. On June 11, Negative Frame announced that they would no longer be performing at the festival. On Instagram they wrote: “Imagine if a portion of every card transaction at the festival was used for really evil terror. We are not part of that.”

So far, the bands boycotting Download have tended to stick to smaller bookings, with none of the major headliners acknowledging the boycott at the time of writing. However, Soft Play previously boycotted The Great Escape Festival in Brighton – another event targeted by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement – so it would not be surprising if they also took a stand against Download.

Barclays is also a major sponsor of the Isle of Wight Festival, Camp Bestival, Lytham Festival and Latitude, to name a few. Recently, several artists, including Irish singer-songwriter CMAT, announced a boycott of Latitude in solidarity with Palestine.

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