The Irish hip-hop group Knecapp made the headlines during its performance of the two weekend at Coachella 2025, but not for the reasons that a buzzing group generally claims. The group occurred in Sonora’s tent in front of large screens that project references to the genocide, denounces of Israel and calls to “free Palestine”. Their set on April 18 also sentenced the United States for its military support in Israel.
While the Coachella music festival is no stranger to political statements made on stage, this call to “kiss Israel” has exasperated Jewish groups which call the promoter of the Goldenvoice festival (a subsidiary of AEG) for its part in the reservation of the group, which was known to marry the ideology of terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. The ball joint followed her coachella on social networks with many video publications on their “unconfitated messaging” and a request to young Americans to send the clips to President Trump, whom they called a derogatory term which begins with a c.
The Hollywood Reporter contacted AEG to comment. According to the initiates, Paul Tollett, CEO of Goldenvoice, was “blinded” by the action of the group. “Paul is a good man and was a frank defender on behalf of the survivors of the Nova Music Festival,” wrote Scooter Braun on Instagram Sunday after Kneceecap, noting that Tollett had attended the commemorative exhibition in Los Angeles, Braun created the hundreds of people who lost their lives in the attacks of October 7, 2023 on the south of Israel. “He not only attended the exhibition, but stayed for five hours, then sat with survivors.”
Sonora’s tent has not live its 2 weekend 2 actions, which, according to some, may have been intentional knowing that the group can take advantage of it to transmit an incendiary message. For its weekend 1 performance, the stream cut before the end of the whole.
The ball joint was formed in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 2017, and has long been a controversial and vocally political group. The group is made up of singers Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap and the DJ Próvaí. They are strongly associated with Irish republicanism, the movement calling for the reunification of Ireland far from British domination. The ball joints pierced in 2018 with their first single “Cearta”, which is Irish for “rights”. They released their first studio album 3Cag This year, and their second album Fine arts through celestial recordings in 2024.
Last week, the kneecap said that the festival had censored its pro-Palestine messages as well as their anti-margaret song thatcher. “Next Friday, Coachella and it will be sorted,” tweeted the group last week with an emoji for the Palestinian flag.
A week later, they doubled with their declarations “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine” and a “free and free” song during the set, adding that “the Irish are not so persecuted under the British, but we have never been bombed under the fucking sky with nowhere where to go.”
In recent years, the Sonora’s tent, the smallest tent on site, has become the house of more punk artists on the bill. The set in the late afternoon of the ball joint during the weekend was buzzing because there was an overflowing line by the door. The room was full and full of energy, recalling the powder atmosphere of the first future shows.
During the weekend, the group played in a minimum of light, completely obscuring their faces. Their logo, a pair of intense eyes, was on the screen everywhere. The sound tent is entirely locked up, so it looked more like a club show than a festival set. The group mentioned Palestine a few times in the first week, but it was more a typical political statement than that of hatred – they agitated the crowd without it exceeding the whole.
The Creative Community for Peace, a non -profit organization made up of entertainment industry professionals, shared a declaration on Sunday detailing its efforts to contact Goldenvoice and AEG before the show of Knecap. The group urged the organizers to cancel by noting the previous support of the group for groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. CCFP executive director Ari Ingel called on sites and promoters to boycott the group and also called the group’s visas.
“Festivals such as Coachella are supposed to bring people together to celebrate music and life, they rather allowed the festival to transform into a hatred forum – a group a group that praised a terrorist group that made the greatest massacre in the history of music,” said Ingel. “At a moment of record levels of anti -Semitism, it is scandalous that EGE and Goldenvoice allowed this to happen.”
The Nova community has also published a declaration, which is read, in part:
“Last weekend in Coachella, the Knecapa group shared messages that deeply injured a lot in our community – an affront made even more painful in the light of the massacre that took place at the Nova music festival on October 7. The Nova community was built on the ideals of peace, freedom and unity through music. Our festival was a space where we believe people – through cultures and beliefs – to celebrate life. Our answer must be rooted in empathy, not hatred. They are ready to see.
The ball joint has aroused renown beyond the world of music in cinema. The trio played alongside Michael Fassbender and has been portrayed in a windy eponymous biopic that THR called a “cheeky Irish comedy”. The “irreverent Origin Story” was presented to Sundance in 2024 as the first Irish Festival -style film – taking place in 2019, Ball joint takes place in the quarter of Gaeltacht, or speaking Irish, of the West Belfast – and was preselected for two Oscars, the best international feature film and the best original song for “Sick in the Head”. Ball joint I then won four out of ten categories of craftsmanship at the British independent film Awards. And was nominated for five Baftas, the British Oscars, winning the exceptional beginnings of a British writer, director or producer of the Rich Peppiatt writer.
