Bob Vylan's Manchester tour date rescheduled after pressure from Jewish groups

Punk-Rap duo Bob Vylan have postponed the Manchester date of their tour 'We Won't Go Quietly' until 5 February 2026. The concert was scheduled to be performed at Manchester Academy on the University of Manchester campus on 5 November 2025. The group have also postponed their upcoming date in Leeds until 7 February 2026.

This comes after calls by Jewish leaders and MPs for the show to be cancelled following a number of remarks made by the group, notably during their performance at Glastonbury in June, where their chant “Death, Death to the IDF’ was live-streamed by the BBC.

The festival organisers admitted that the chant had "very much crossed the line" and BBC director-general Tim Davie later confessed it was a “very significant mistake” to broadcast the festival set live.

Following the synagogue attacks in Heaton Park earlier this month, the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester wrote to the venue to demand “urgent action” regarding the performance, claiming that it would cause “significant concern” in the community. They went on to brand the lack of response from the academy as “utterly unforgivable."

Speaking to Sky News, Jewish Representative Council Chief Executive Marc Levy claimed the band had "openly engaged in gregarious anti-semitism”, questioning how “any responsible venue” could even “consider hosting such an act."

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson added to the pressure on the Academy and Students’ Union, claiming that universities had the power to “take action to prevent harassment and intimidation."

In response, the University of Manchester Students’ Union put out a statement on 23 October 2025, emphasising that for generations, the venue has “hosted artists and performers who reflect the full range of human experience,” “providing a space for creative and cultural expression."

Despite upholding that music and culture are spaces for protest and difference to exist “safely and respectfully”, they also highlighted how Vylan’s performance was “the subject of deep and understandable public scrutiny, given it’s a during a difficult time for our city following the horrific terror attack."

This summer, the group were dropped from several festivals and performances, including Radar Festival at Victoria Warehouse Manchester. The band were also dropped by their talent agents.

Earlier this week, Bobby Vylan, the face of the group, took to the Louis Theroux Podcast to express his pushback at the nation’s response to his performance.

Vylan claimed that he did not believe that he had "created an unsafe atmosphere for the Jewish community." Instead, he emphasised;

"What is important is the conditions that exist to allow that chant to even take place on that stage. And I mean, the conditions that exist in Palestine. Where the Palestinian people are being killed at an alarming rate. Who cares about the chant?”

He added that he had no regret over the incident at Glastonbury, and that he “would do it again tomorrow.”

Vylan also took to X to speak on the decision to postpone the tour, "due to political pressure from the likes of Bridget Phillipson and groups in the NW of England we have had to reschedule our Leeds and Manchester shows."

This comes at a crucial moment in time for the war in Gaza, as tensions surrounding the ceasefire continue to define British cultural and academic spaces.

Notably, The University of Manchester face ever-growing controversies surrounding its ties to Israel, with a recent SU motion calling for UoM to cut ties with Tel Aviv University passing with 94% in favour.