{"id":61763,"date":"2026-04-06T18:26:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T18:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/06\/diageo-rockstar-energy-exit-wireless-festival-over-kanye-west-booking\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T18:26:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T18:26:35","slug":"diageo-rockstar-energy-exit-wireless-festival-over-kanye-west-booking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/06\/diageo-rockstar-energy-exit-wireless-festival-over-kanye-west-booking\/","title":{"rendered":"Diageo, Rockstar Energy Exit Wireless Festival Over Kanye West Booking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/wireless\/\" id=\"auto-tag_wireless\" data-tag=\"wireless\">Wireless<\/a> Festival is down at least two more partners as Diageo and Rockstar Energy join Pepsi in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/pepsi-pulls-wireless-sponsorship-keir-starmer-kanye-west-1235542019\/\">backing out <\/a>of sponsoring the London event following the announcement of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/kanye-west\/\" id=\"auto-tag_kanye-west\" data-tag=\"kanye-west\">Kanye West<\/a> as a headliner for the 2026 iteration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cWe have informed the organisers of our concerns and as it stands, Diageo will not sponsor the 2026 Wireless festival,\u201d the company behind Guinness, Crown Royal, Smirnoff, Ketel One, and more said in a statement to<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/arts-entertainment\/music\/news\/pepsi-diageo-kanye-west-london-wireless-sponsorship-backlash-b2952215.html\"> <em>The Independent<\/em>.<\/a> Diageo did not immediately respond to <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2018s request for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe festival\u2019s website still lists the event as \u201cPepsi MAX Presents Wireless,\u201d though all previously-named sponsors and partners have been removed from the site. The section originally listed PayPal, Beatbox, Budweiser, and more. The three brands did not immediately respond to <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2018s requests for comment, though <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.itv.com\/news\/2026-04-05\/drinks-giant-joins-pepsi-in-pulling-out-of-festival-over-kanye-west-headliner?refresh=1\">ITV<\/a> reports that PayPal will no longer be partnering with the festival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tWhile West has not been directly named in any statements regarding the departure of sponsors from Wireless Festival 2026, the timing aligns with a cutting statement from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. \u201cIt is deeply concerning that Kanye West has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism,\u201d Starmer said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tWest recently released the album <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-album-reviews\/ye-kanye-west-bully-1235538611\/\">Bully<\/a><\/em> and ramped up his<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/kanye-west-lauryn-hill-travis-scott-los-angeles-concert-two-1235541886\/\"> comeback tour <\/a>with nostalgic concert performances featuring appearances from Lauryn Hill, North West, CeeLo Green, Andr\u00e9 Troutman, Zion Marley, and YG Marley. It marks his first full-fledged mainstream push since publishing an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/kanye-west-apologizes-antisemitc-bipolar-battle-1235504513\/\">open letter<\/a> in <em>The Wall Street Journal<\/em> apologizing for his antisemitism over the past few years and past controversial statements.<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules trending-in-article lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cAntisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted clearly and firmly wherever it appears,\u201d Starmer continued in his statement. \u201cEveryone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe and secure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan, also commenting, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/kanye-west-wireless-festival-london-mayor-comment-1235540078\/\">told <em>Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a>, \u201cWe are clear that the past comments and actions of this artist are offensive and wrong, and are simply not reflective of London\u2019s values. This was a decision taken by the festival organizers and not one that City Hall is involved in.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/kanye-west-wireless-festival-diageo-rockstar-energy-exit-1235542234\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wireless Festival is down at least two more partners as Diageo and Rockstar Energy join Pepsi in backing out of sponsoring the London event&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":61764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}