Romy Pikoos, a Jewish resident of London, England, attended the Glastonbury Festival last weekend, where several concert sets saw fierce anti-Israel chants. In a conversation with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News, she looks back at her experience and shares her feelings amid the controversy.
Romy, who has attended Glastonbury three times, has an overwhelmingly positive outlook on the festival. "Glastonbury is amazing, I had an amazing time. The festival, if we just leave out the controversy for a second, is the most amazing thing on earth. It's full of people who want to go celebrate and enjoy music, and have a great time, spend a week with their friends, and this year was no different."
Describing the festival, she says: "There are over 30 stages; huge acts on every stage, so there's a lot to see and do. Especially for someone who lives in London, where people aren't the friendliest, at Glastonbury, everybody is super friendly, warm, and welcoming."
While footage posted to social media portrayed a hostile anti-Israel environment at the festival, Romy paints a less dramatic picture: "I wore my Magen David (Jewish star) the whole time at the festival, I wore the hostage pin, we had hostage stickers that we were giving out. We were with an amazing couple that had the Nova (Festival) flag and the hostage flag flying the whole time. And what was interesting was that we didn't feel overt antisemitism, nobody said anything antisemitic to us, there was no hate directed towards us, if people even noticed, nothing was said. Even people with Palestinian flags didn't really take notice."
According to Fikoos, nearly all the Jews that she knew at the festival avoided the Kneecap performance. As far as Bob Vylan, none of them knew of the act before the controversy, and therefore were not present at his set either. "We only really found out about the horrific chanting later that day or the next morning."
Regarding her feelings at the festival, she concludes: "There was this sense when you look around. We were saying that we wondered if we would have felt as comfortable if we had walked around with an Israeli flag."
Romy points out that while this year's festival made headlines, she saw more Palestinian flags at last year's festival, definitely amongst the crowds. This being said, she says that compared to past years, there were significantly fewer hostage flags and Nova Festival flags, and virtually no Israeli flags. She shares that she wishes she had taken an Israeli flag with her, "If for no other reason, then to see what the reaction would have been, but I'm not sure it would have been positive, I think we'd probably be having a very different conversation had I."
As a Jewish person who is an avid attendee at Glastonbury, Fukoos holds complex feelings on the heels of the hateful incidents at the festival: "I go between saying, 'We shouldn't go, we should boycott it. At the end of the day, something like 4000 performers get invited to Glastonbury. The festival doesn't necessarily endorse what the performers say. However, I think they definitely should be held accountable, especially because Kneecap performed."
The above stated, she concludes that her overwhelming feeling is "not to run away, not to say that Jews shouldn't go back to this festival. I actually feel the opposite; I feel that we need to show up even louder and prouder next time. I think it's important that we are represented, that people can see us, and that people can spend time with us and see that we are just like them, we are not monsters. Most people don't even know a Jewish person, and the reason they hold these views is because it's fed to them by the loud, annoying minority, but they are the loudest, so that's what they hear. I don't feel like I should never go back to Glastonbury ever again. I feel that we should go back and we should be loud, and proud and show people who we are, because the only way that hearts and minds will change is through dialogue, and if we're not there and giving an alternative, then they will just believe that that's the truth."