Grime Artist and UK hot property Stormzy has today pulled out of his planned headline set at Snowbombing festival, in a move that’s caused controversy for both sides. Stormzy was ““unhappy with the manner by which [a search] took place”, and accused the festival of racial profiling. This search later found no weapons to be in the possession of any of the people who were removed from the festival.
Stormzy pulls out of Snowbombing after being left “unhappy with the manner” security carried out weapons search on manager https://t.co/gwHq8Mc5oR pic.twitter.com/2DiQKP5Ga6
— NME (@NME) April 11, 2019
In a full statement Snowbombing festival said “Snowbombing regrets to inform you that Stormzy will no longer be performing at the festival this evening. Last night (Wednesday 10th) Snowbombing’s security were alerted to the possibility that an individual at the festival was allegedly carrying a weapon. In accordance with protocol, a small number of attendees, including Stormzy’s manager were escorted to the nearest exit, searched and no weapon was found. Stormzy’s management were unhappy with the manner by which this took place and as a result Stormzy will no longer be performing tonight. This evening’s Forest Party will now not go ahead as planned”
Snowbombing regrets to inform you that Stormzy will no longer be performing at the festival this evening. For more information please click the link https://t.co/gjLA6VBJNj — Snowbombing (@Snowbombing) April 11, 2019
“We are deeply saddened that any individual would feel uncomfortable at Snowbombing. Snowbombing would like to wholeheartedly apologise to Stormzy’s team. We are doing everything we can to understand the full situation and are treating this with the utmost seriousness to ensure this does not happen again.” Fans have however come out in support of Stormzy, praising him for fighting against racial injustice and standing up and representing people often who have been mistreated, and for putting this before money and personal interests.
Sidenote- What Stormzy is doing right now is big and needed. These people think they can mistreat people and just get away with it. It’s unfortunate for fans but that’s the only way this is gonna make organisations feel it and hopefully LEARN.
— •FERG• (@KaishaFerg) April 11, 2019
I’m GLAD Stormzy decided not to perform. How you can be angry at someone making a difference and standing up for his whole race? Money & time are important yes, but respect, dignity & equality will always top that. Thank you, Stormzy.
— ÃJ (@amskyky) April 11, 2019
In response to Snowbombing’s post Stormzy has responded via Instagram. Beginning with “First and foremost fuck @snowbombingofficial Bunch of pussyholes,” Which he wrote over a screenshot of Snowbombing’s statement. Stormzy then followed that with “Secondly, my sincerest apologies to anyone who travelled all that way to watch me perform. However if these are the drastic steps that I need to take to make a point against racism and racial profiling then I’m taking it. My manager and all my friends who were at the festival were racially profiled, targeted and aggressively handled because they ‘had reason to believe someone was carrying a weapon’. This is the kind of soul-draining shit black people gotta deal with all the time and I’m sick of it so fuck the festival and fuck the performance.”
Stormzy then continued this with future messages on Instagram and Twitter. His Twitter account has since been suspended however not people keen eager eyed tweeters could screenshot the images for us to share.
For anyone that’s pissed off at stormzy pic.twitter.com/6pDL0ah5EJ
— R E B I (@rebifiercefit) April 11, 2019
