Wireless Festival has been cancelled after Kanye West was blocked from travelling to the UK, bringing an abrupt end to a row over the rapper’s planned appearance at the London event.

The Home Office refused West’s Electronic Travel Authorisation on Monday, saying his presence in the UK would not be “conducive to the public good”. West, who now goes by Ye, had been due to headline all three nights of the festival at Finsbury Park from 10 to 12 July.

The decision means one of the UK’s biggest summer music events will no longer go ahead in 2026. Organisers had built the festival around West, who was booked as the main-stage headliner across the full weekend in what would have been his first UK performances in 11 years.

The cancellation follows days of growing political and commercial pressure over the booking, which prompted criticism from senior ministers, London mayor Sadiq Khan and Jewish community groups because of West’s record of antisemitic and pro-Nazi statements.

Wireless, staged by Festival Republic, attracts about 50,000 people a day to Finsbury Park and is one of the country’s flagship urban music festivals. Organisers are expected to offer refunds to ticket-holders, although full details were not immediately available.

The controversy began after Wireless announced West as its headline act on 30 March. The booking was swiftly condemned by the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which argued that giving the artist a prestigious three-night slot sent the wrong message at a time of heightened concern about antisemitism.

West has faced repeated criticism in recent years for antisemitic remarks, public praise for Adolf Hitler and the use of Nazi imagery. He has also lost commercial partnerships and faced restrictions abroad because of his conduct.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer was among those to publicly criticise the booking, saying it was “deeply concerning” and that “antisemitism in any form is abhorrent and must be confronted firmly wherever it appears”.

There was also pressure from across the political divide for the government to intervene. The Conservatives urged ministers to bar West from entering the country, while Labour minister Wes Streeting said festival organisers “should be ashamed of themselves” for pressing ahead with the appearance.

Khan, through a spokesperson, said West’s comments were incompatible with London’s values, although City Hall noted that the decision to book him rested with the organisers.

Commercial fallout followed quickly. Pepsi withdrew its sponsorship of the festival, with Rockstar Energy and Diageo also distancing themselves from the event. PayPal said its branding would no longer appear on Wireless material.

Until the Home Office acted, Festival Republic had defended the booking. Melvin Benn, the company’s managing director, said “forgiveness and giving people a second chance are becoming a lost virtue in this ever-increasing divisive world”.

Benn argued that West should be judged on whether he could perform without turning the festival into a platform for political speech, and said the artist had expressed remorse for earlier remarks. He also suggested the rapper’s music remained widely available in the UK and that preventing him from performing raised broader questions about how far organisers and authorities should go in policing public figures.

Critics rejected that argument, saying the issue was not artistic freedom but the decision to centre a major British festival on a performer who had openly aligned himself with Nazi rhetoric. Community leaders said the symbolism of the booking outweighed any commercial or musical case for keeping him on the bill.

The Home Office has broad powers to refuse entry to non-citizens whose presence is judged not to be in the public interest. The “not conducive to the public good” test has previously been used in cases involving extremist speakers and other controversial overseas visitors.

West’s case had already drawn international attention because of similar action taken elsewhere. Australia cancelled his visa in July 2025 after the release of a song titled “Heil Hitler”, intensifying scrutiny of whether other countries would allow him to perform.

Earlier this year, West took out a full-page newspaper advertisement in the United States apologising for antisemitic comments and saying some of his past behaviour had been linked to untreated bipolar disorder and a brain injury. That apology was cited by Benn and others who argued he should be allowed to return to the stage.

In the end, the government decided otherwise, and organisers chose to cancel the festival rather than attempt to rebuild the line-up without him. That leaves major questions over the wider impact of the decision, including the loss of one of London’s biggest summer music weekends and the knock-on effect on artists, staff, suppliers and local businesses connected to the event.

For now, however, the immediate outcome is clear: West will not be coming to the UK, and Wireless 2026 will not take place.