IDLES and frontman Joe Talbot have dedicated their Primavera Sound Festival 2025 set to Palestine.
The Bristol band – who have long been vocal supporters of Palestine in the Israel-Gaza war – displayed a strong showing of support at Primavera Sound on Thursday (June 5) in Barcelona.
Talbot kicked off the band’s set by yelling “Free Palestine!” right at the start of their opening number ‘Colossus’, and the band dedicated the entirety of their set to Palestine.
Elsewhere during their performance, Talbot led minutes-long chants of “Viva Palestina!”, which translates to “long live Palestine”. He at one point also asked the audience “Donde esta las Palestinas? (Where are the Palestinans?)”
The vocalist also wore a white t-shirt with a watermelon emblem, a symbol of support for Palestine. The back of his shirt read: “You’ll never walk alone.”
The band’s full set can be seen below.
During the band’s performance of ‘Divide and Conquer’, Talbot weaved chants of “Free free Palestine” into the opening riff. “This song is an anti-fascist song. It’s dedicated to the people of Palestine,” he said, introducing the tune – check it out from the 26-minute mark above.
Ok the ‘Viva Palestina’ chant during IDLES set @Primavera_Sound is dope ngl
— falafel jr. (@cremonski) June 5, 2025
This is far from the first time the band have thrown their support behind Palestine. At Glastonbury last year, the Bristol band led a protest-fuelled performance, once again dedicating the set to the people of Palestine – it earned them a five-star review from NME.
In February last year, IDLES showed solidarity for Palestine at their ‘Tangk’ launch show in Brixton. Several times during that show, Talbot voiced his support for the people of Gaza suffering as a result of the war with Israel. Introducing ‘Mother’, he paid tribute to his own late mum’s social conscience and told the crowd: “I know deep within my heart, that if she was alive today, she would want me to say: ‘Long live Palestine’.”
During ‘The Wheel’, he altered the lyrics to the chorus to “Can I get a hallelujah? Viva Palestina“, before dedicating the ode to immigrants ‘Danny Nedelko’ to the people of Gaza and singing: “My blood brother’s Palestinian, my best friend is a citizen, he’s strong, he’s earnest, he’s innocent.”
Most recently, IDLES have thrown their support behind Irish rap trio Kneecap, who have been at the center of controversy for their vocal support of Palestine. The band are just one of numerous acts to sign a letter championing artists’ freedom of expression.
The letter came after Kneecap’s Mo Chara was charged and investigated for a terror offence after allegedly displayed a Hezbollah flag at a show in last November and made controversial comments about members of parliament while on stage.
