A concert organised by a Brexit campaign group has run into difficulty after a number of acts said they were pulling out because they were in favour of Britain’s membership.
Musicians booked to appear at Bpoplive, which is due to take place on 8 May at the 15,000-capacity Genting Arena in Birmingham, were surprised to hear that the event had been put together by Leave.EU.
A number of artists told Buzzfeed News that they did not realise the event was a political rally – and were actually quite positive about the EU.
The drum’n’bass act Sigma, who are billed as one of the headliners, said they would not be appearing after hearing about the anti-EU stance, despite already advertising the performance on their website.
A spokesman for the duo said they “are in no way supporting the event” when asked whether they were in favour of Britain voting to leave the EU.
Tom Hyland of the Electric Swing Circus, who are also booked to appear, said his band “are not pro-Brexit”. He said they did not all have the same view over the issue but said “as a group, we are generally pro-EU”.
Buzzfeed approached a representative for DJ Luck and MC Neat – the duo behind the 1999 UK garage hit A Little Bit of Luck – to ask if they were endorsing the anti-EU movement by appearing at the event. “I didn’t even know it was about that to be honest,” they responded.
According to a press release, Bpoplive will feature “some of Britain’s hottest artists as well as speeches from leading personalities and politicians who support leaving the EU” and “will be the first of its kind in the UK”.
A spokesperson for Leave.EU insisted the event was not an anti-EU music festival and said it had been a mistake to include the Leave.EU logo on early promotional material and the reference to anti-EU speakers in a press release.
“That was misbriefed,” the spokesperson said. “There was a miscommunication between us and the people putting it on. You’ve got the wrong end of the stick.”
Instead, Leave.EU said the event was about getting more young people on to the electoral register, regardless of how they will vote: “The idea came from a thing in the states organised by MTV called Rock the Vote, with the message in between the acts, in the same way the BBC does Children in Need.”
Leave.EU said they were meeting on Tuesday to confirm further Bpoplive acts, but complained that musicians booked to appear were “hounded by the press and acts started pulling out”.
It said: “We’ve booked chart-topping bands for it – it’s not going to be for older people.”
It is not clear why an anti-EU group would back an event to get young people excited about June’s EU referendum, since campaigners have identified them as being particularly key to the remain camp’s strategy.
The full lineup of the event has yet to be officially announced but more acts are expected to be signed up.
Some versions of the Bpoplive lineup continue to advertise the singer Ella Eyre as appearing but her spokesperson said she was not playing and had never confirmedwhen asked whether she supported Brexit.
Rumours that Pixie Lott was due to appear have also been quashed by her publicist.
The only other act now confirmed are Phats & Small, who had their biggest hit with Turn Around in 1999. Phats & Small did not respond to a request for comment.
