By Laura Cooper and Jacob Bunge

An executive overseeing a U.K. music festival defended booking Kanye West as the event's headliner, following criticism from political leaders and high-profile sponsors pulling out.

Melvin Benn, managing director of Festival Republic, said that West has recognized his past "abhorrent" comments about Jews and Adolf Hitler, and has a legal right to perform in the U.K.

"We are not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature, only to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations in our country and the streaming platforms in our country and listened to and enjoyed by millions," said Benn. His company oversees Wireless Festival, for which West was announced last week as the headliner.

U.K. politicians have criticized the booking, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer calling it "deeply concerning." Sponsors including PepsiCo, Diageo and Anheuser-Busch InBev said they have dropped their sponsorship of the event, scheduled to be held this summer in London's Finsbury Park.

The festival had been marketed as "Pepsi Max Presents Wireless" in promotional materials, and AB-InBev's Budweiser and BeatBox brands had previously been listed as sponsors.

Representatives of West didn't respond to requests for comment.

West, who now goes by Ye, has been trying to move past years of controversies that have included calling slavery a "choice," denying the Holocaust and praising Hitler.

West has in recent months taken steps to restore his image and make amends for past behavior. In January he took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal, written in the form of a letter "to those I've hurt, " saying that he had "lost touch with reality" after a brain injury led to a bipolar disorder diagnosis.

"I said and did things I deeply regret," West wrote. He said that medication, therapy, exercise and clean living were helping him find clarity.

West's letter followed years of controversies that had destroyed many of the business ventures that helped make him a billionaire. In 2022, Adidas and Gap cut ties with West, ending partnerships centered on branded apparel and footwear.

After Adidas ended the deal, the company was left with more than $1 billion of unsold stock of Yeezy shoes. A legal dispute over the terminated partnership was settled in 2024, and included no payments to West.

The rapper has held on to his audience, which includes 73.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and 19.7 million followers on Instagram. His new album "Bully" was released on March 28.

Write to Laura Cooper at laura.cooper@wsj.com and Jacob Bunge at jacob.bunge@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 06, 2026 17:10 ET (21:10 GMT)

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