Pepsi and Diageo Withdraw Wireless Festival Sponsorship After Kanye West Booking

Pepsi and Diageo withdrew their sponsorship of London's Wireless Festival on April 5, 2026, after the event booked Kanye West — who performs under the name Ye — as headliner for all three nights of the July 10-12 festival at Finsbury Park, triggering a wave of political condemnation over the rapper's history of antisemitic statements and praise for Nazi ideology. Pepsi, which had served as the festival's main sponsor for a decade under the branding "Pepsi MAX Presents Wireless," announced its departure in a brief statement: "Pepsi has decided to withdraw its sponsorship of Wireless Festival." Diageo, owner of Johnnie Walker and Captain Morgan, followed hours later, with a spokesperson stating the company had "informed the organisers of our concerns" and would not sponsor the 2026 edition. West, who has not performed on UK soil since headlining Glastonbury in 2015, is still scheduled to appear at the festival despite the mounting pressure. Other corporate partners listed on the festival website, including AB InBev — owner of Budweiser — and PayPal, had not commented on their involvement at the time of reporting.

Prime minister and opposition leader both condemn the booking The controversy drew swift condemnation from across the British political spectrum, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer describing the booking as "deeply concerning." „It is deeply concerning that Kanye West has been booked to perform at Wireless despite his previous antisemitic remarks and celebration of Nazism.” — Keir Starmer via The Guardian Starmer added that antisemitism "in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted clearly and firmly wherever it appears," and that "everyone has a responsibility to ensure Britain is a place where Jewish people feel safe and secure." Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, went further, calling on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to ban West from entering the United Kingdom entirely. Davey argued the government needed to "be tougher on antisemitism." Under British immigration rules, Mahmood holds the authority to deny entry to individuals whose conduct or associations may constitute a public threat, though Sky News reported the Home Office had not yet received an application for West to enter the country. London Mayor Sadiq Khan also issued a statement, saying West's past comments and actions were "offensive and wrong, and are simply not reflective of London's values," while clarifying the booking was a decision taken by festival organisers and not by City Hall. The Jewish Leadership Council condemned the festival's decision, citing record levels of antisemitism in the UK, including what it described as a terrorist attack in Manchester and an attack on ambulances in Golders Green.

Tottenham had already turned West away before festival booking It emerged that Tottenham Hotspur had rejected a proposal for West to perform at its stadium before his team approached Wireless Festival, according to a source cited by The Sun. The source said West's representatives had identified the north London ground as their preferred venue for a series of shows as part of his music comeback. "When they approached Tottenham with their proposal, the club turned it down," the source said, adding: "There was no way they were going to let Kanye perform at the club given their history with the Jewish community." Tottenham's decision preceded the Wireless booking and the subsequent sponsor withdrawals. The episode illustrated the scale of institutional resistance West faces in the United Kingdom as he attempts to rebuild his public profile. West released his 12th studio album, "Bully," on March 28, 2026, and performed two shows at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles in support of the record. Following the planned Wireless Festival dates, West is scheduled to perform at RCF Arena in Reggio Emilia, Italy, on July 18.

West's Wall Street Journal apology blamed a four-month manic episode West has sought to distance himself from years of controversy through a public apology published as a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal in January 2026. In the ad, addressed "to those I've hurt," West wrote that he was "not a Nazi or an antisemite" and that he loved Jewish people. „In early 2025, I fell into a four-month-long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour that destroyed my life. I lost touch with reality. Things got worse the longer I ignored the problem. I said and did things I deeply regret.” — Kanye West via The Wall Street Journal West attributed his behaviour to his bipolar-1 disorder and said he was working toward a new "baseline" through medication, therapy, exercise, and clean living. His controversies had already cost him his partnership with Adidas, which terminated its Yeezy collaboration in 2022 after West shared an image of a swastika inside a Star of David; Adidas subsequently donated more than $150 million to anti-hate groups and was left with over $1 billion in unsold Yeezy stock. The two sides settled their legal dispute in 2024 with no payments made to West. Despite the damage to his business empire, West retains a substantial audience, with 73.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and 19.7 million followers on Instagram, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Wireless Festival was founded in 2005 and is owned and managed by Live Nation. The event initially featured rock and pop artists before shifting its focus toward hip-hop and R&B in the 2010s. Pepsi's sponsorship partnership with the festival began in 2015, with the event branded as "Pepsi MAX Presents Wireless" throughout that period. West previously headlined Wireless in 2014 and headlined Glastonbury in 2015, his last performance on UK soil before the current booking. Since October 7, 2023, and the start of the war in Gaza, reports of antisemitic incidents have risen sharply in the United Kingdom, providing additional sensitivity around the festival controversy.

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