Stormzy has cancelled his headlining appearance at the Snowbombing festival in Austria, accusing the organisers of “racially profiling” his manager and friends after reports someone was carrying a weapon.
In an expletive-laden tirade on Instagram, the grime artist apologised to his fans but said he felt he had no choice but to pull himself from the lineup.
He wrote:
“First and foremost, fuck Snowbombing. 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.”
A statement from the festival’s organisers acknowledged the report of someone carrying a weapon but insisted the search of Stormzy’s team was “in accordance with protocol” and said it was investigating the circumstances of the incident.
The statement read: “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.
“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.”