The financial implications of cancelling Wireless Festival after Kanye West was denied entry to the UK are still being realised – with reports now claiming that the rapper was offered an eye-watering $15m (£11.7m) to perform.
Last week, it was announced that West, also known as Ye, would be playing his first UK shows in a decade while headlining all three nights at the London festival. The news was met with major blowback due to the spate of antisemitic remarks made by the “Stronger” rapper, 48, between 2022 and 2025.
On Tuesday (7 April), Wireless announced that the festival had been cancelled after the Home Office withdrew West’s Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), denying him entry to the UK.
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And while it’s been estimated that cancelling the festival could cost Wireless over £30m in potential earnings, a new report from The Daily Mail has claimed that West was paid a staggering $15m to play at the festival.
It’s alleged that executives from Wireless’s parent company Live Nation flew out from Los Angeles to see him play in Mexico last month in an attempt to convince him to play the London festival.
However, sources told the publication that they were advised against having West perform in Finsbury Park, due to its close proximity to north London’s Jewish community, but “they didn’t listen”.
“They are now saying that they asked ‘stakeholders’ but this is simply ludicrous,” an insider told the publication.
“Before they signed a deal with Wireless they had asked about putting a show on at the Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham grounds and both turned them down absolutely flat. That should at least have shown them what a problem there was. Then there was an exploration of asking Twickenham but it was felt to be the wrong crowd for Kanye.”
The Independent has contacted West’s representatives and Live Nation for comment.
After news of West’s performance was met with immediate backlash, Melvin Benn, the managing director of Wireless Festival’s organiser Festival Republic defended booking him as a headliner despite West’s “abhorrent”past remarks.
“Forgiveness and giving people a second chance are becoming a lost virtue in this ever-increasing divisive world and I would ask people to reflect on their instant comments of disgust at the likelihood of him performing (as was mine) and offer some forgiveness and hope to him as I have decided to do,” he said.
West first apologised for his antisemitic remarks in 2023, but in February 2025 began selling a swastika t-shirt on his web store and released a song called “Heil Hitler”.
In January 2026, he took out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal to apologise for his antisemitic comments, saying that he had “lost touch with reality” due to his bipolar disorder.
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood banned the rapper on the grounds that his presence would “not be conducive to the public good”.
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