Stormzy pulls out of Snowbombing after accusing organisers of “racial profiling”

The rapper was due to play a headline set on the Forest Stage

Stormzy will no longer perform at Snowbombing 2019 after claiming that his team were racially profiled.

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of ‘The World’s Greatest Show on Snow’, Stormzy was supposed to perform yesterday (April 11) on the Forest Stage. However, Snowbombing announced via an online statement that the ‘Shut Up’ rapper would no longer be performing after he and his management team were “unhappy with the manner by which [a search] took place” after the festival was alerted to the possibility that someone was allegedly carrying a weapon.

“Snowbombing regrets to inform you that Stormzy will no longer be performing at the festival this evening,” the statement began. “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.”

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Stormzy: “First and foremost fuck @snowbombingofficial Bunch of pussyholes.”

The statement went on to add that Snowbombing was “deeply saddened” that anyone would feel uncomfortable at the festival, and that they wanted 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,” they concluded.

Stormzy has since responded to the incident via his Instagram.

“First and foremost fuck @snowbombingofficial Bunch of pussyholes,” Stormzy wrote over a screenshot of a tweet by Snowbombing announcing the cancellation of his performance. “Secondly, my sincerest apologies to anyone who travelled all that way to watch me perform I’m genuinely upset that you’ve wasted your time and money and that burns me more than you’d know.”

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Explaining that he too would be “fuming” if he spent money and travelled all that way to go and see an artist and they pulled out last minute, but he wanted his fans to hear him out and told them that “if these are the drastic steps that I need to take to make a point against racism and racial profiling then trust me I’m taking it.”

Giving his side of the story, Stromzy said of the incident: “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.’

“The security targeted them (despite no one fitting the description), were physically aggressive when handling them and there’s been no effort from the festival to actually deal and address the problem.”

Adding that “this is the kind of soul draining shit black people gotta deal with all the fucking time,” Stormzy continued to express his disgust with Snowbombing before highlighting some of the questions and comments made by festival-goers.

Responding to the question ‘Yeah but we paid all this money and travelled here, couldn’t you just do it?????,’ Stormzy posted: “The answer is no, I can’t do it. It burns me that you guys are the ones who lose out but shit ain’t kool and it can’t run.”

Read the rest of Stormzy’s response below:

Meanwhile, Stormzy will take top billing at this year’s Glastonbury on the Pyramid Stage on the Friday night, while The Killers and The Cure will follow with respective performances on the Saturday and Sunday night of the festival.

Stormzy also recently launched a competition through his #Merky Books to find talented young writers.

Done though his Penguin Random House imprint, which helps young writers get published, the competition is open to writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry aged between 16 and 30.

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