Crash Course
Posts
The UK's long, hot summer (music festivals)

The UK's long, hot summer (music festivals)

Crackdowns on protests at UK music fests harmonize with Donald Trump's actions across the pond

Alex Galbraith
August 26, 2025

Crash Course subscribers are a part of the conversation. Click the speech bubble icon at the top of this email to add a comment or tap the heart icon to like this post.

The news, in brief …

Trump promises jail time for flag-burners while signing executive order
The controversial practice has been ruled protected speech by the Supreme Court. Read more.
“Chasing relevance”: Maron sounds off on “desperate” Maher
The trailblazing comedian and podcaster said that Maher is "struggling to stay in the conversation." Read more.
Epstein accuser’s memoir to be published posthumously
The publisher promised “intimate, disturbing, and heartbreaking new details" from the Epstein accuser's life. Read more.
GOP senator fires back after Trump rages over Alina Habba snub
Chuck Grassley told Trump his former personal lawyer doesn't have the votes. Read more.
“Proudly pro-life” Wisconsin Republican scrubs anti-abortion text from campaign site
Rep. Bryan Steil swapped the “pro-life” section of his issues page for a single sentence ahead of the midterms. Read more.
Trump’s DOJ puts John Bolton in its crosshairs
What's happening to the former national security advisor should chill Americans. Read more.
Parents reel from Trump ICE crackdown
Republican policies are pushing a strained child care industry to a breaking point. Read more.

Make me smarter …

Democrats can’t win the gerrymander war

They have to win elections instead — and with reapportionment coming, that's about to get a lot harder. Read more.

The Mary Wallopers hold a Palestinian flag as they protest onstage during Day 1 of Victorious Festival. (Getty Images)

Glasto, no you didn’t

The modern music festival sprang out of Georgian England and remains a quintessentially British institution.

A relative dearth of sunshiny days and an abundance of big, empty fields relatively close in to the country’s urban centers shaped youth culture on that island the same way cheap gasoline and endless miles of asphalt crafted the boundaries of adolescent downtime across the pond. As the younger generation turns sharply away from the status quo on Israel and Palestine, it’s cropping up in both countries wherever young people tend to gather.

In the United States, that means endless news stories about protests at the state universities and private colleges that dot the sprawling continent. English college students are also speaking up, but the place to be heard is the fest.

Onstage protests at multiple British music festivals have landed organizers in hot water throughout the summer. A slew of bands pulled out of Portsmouth’s Victorious Festival over the weekend, after organizers cut an Irish folk band’s mics when they raised a Palestinian flag. Headliners Vampire Weekend, who notably made their bones with youthful takes on American campus life, spoke out on the controversy from the stage on Saturday.

“If someone was punished for flying a flag, that is wrong and they deserve an apology,” frontman Ezra Koenig said. “The terrible suffering of the Palestinian people deserves all of our sympathy.”

The Victorious dust-up follows an eventful Glastonbury. Punk act Bob Vylan and Irish rap band Kneecap were both the subject of investigations by U.K. police after they led pro-Palestine chants during their sets at the marquee fest in June. The investigation into Kneecap has been dropped, but member Mo Chara is facing separate terrorism charges related to the band’s support of pro-Palestine groups. Police allege that he displayed the flag of Hezbollah at a gig last November. He has denied the charges.

Ireland’s hip-hop rebels: How three Belfast bros became Fox News villains

Hip-hop group Kneecap has embraced political provocation, perpetuating the Irish paradox

The U.K. has a much less liberal view of speech than its former colony, but recent crackdowns in the U.S. should give would-be attendees of Lollapaloozas and Bonnas Roo pause.

The warmer months began with arrests and attempted deportations of campus organizers. Trump then deployed the National Guard as an overheated response to California’s ICE protests. He’s since modified it into a more general weapon formed against urbanites and residents of blue states.

MAGA knows DC takeover isn't about crime — which is why they love it

Trump's war on the Smithsonian reveals that this is about childish resentment, not safety

The talk turned to flags yet again on Monday. Trump signed an executive order pushing for punishment of flag burning, a protest tactic that has been twice upheld as constitutionally protected speech by the Supreme Court.

Trump’s actions are meant to curtail protest, frightening city-dwellers with scenes of empty streets patrolled by armed soldiers and threatening them with jail time if their expressions of rage fall outside boundaries deemed acceptable by the GOP. The Trump administration, as well as UK authorities and fearful organizers, are looking to frighten people from speaking too loudly on the streets and on the stage this summer.

Establishing perimeters of National Guardsmen at landmarks in the nation’s capital and cutting mics on some farm may look quite different in photos, but they send the same clear message. Enjoy the weather, but keep it down.

What do you think? Are we about to lose the free speech protections that are our one remaining brag while talking to Europeans? Should a flag derail an entire set? Click the speech bubble icon to sound off in the comments.