A gig in Brighton featuring British Jewish band Oi Va Voi has been cancelled by its promoter.
The award-winning band, renowned for their mix of klezmer with dance grooves and western melodic sensibility, are currently on a tour promoting their new album and have performed sell-out shows at venues in Amsterdam, Budapest, Brussels, Cologne and Cambridge.
The cancellation of their Brighton show at the venue Patterns on Saturday follows the cancellation of their Bristol gig at Strange Brew last week.
Music promotion company Love Thy Neighbour, based in Brighton, put out a statement saying that “In light of recent events involving this artist” the show had been cancelled and tickets refunded. It subsequently added: “On Wednesday 28th May we made a statement about the Oi Va Voi gig on Saturday 31 May. That statement was misleading. Oi Va Voi is a non-political band, we understand they have never used any of their concerts to promote specific political positions and there was no reason for us to believe they would do so. We took the decision to cancel the gig ourselves and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
The band made this statement shortly before the cancelled Brighton show: “Our show in Brighton at Patterns has been cancelled by the promoter. The cancellation was against our will and not under our control. We will be making a statement about this at a later date.
We are sorry to everyone that bought tickets. We are working on a new date and hope to announce something soon.”
The JC has contacted Love Thy Neighbour for a comment.
The band’s Bristol show at Strange Brew was cancelled by the venue due to pressure by pro-Palestine activists. The venue blamed a piece of album artwork by one of the performers in Oi Va Voi which they “believe to be politically offensive in light of the ongoing situation in Gaza”. The band said the artwork was simply representing “femininity and nature” and that the activist groups contacted the venue “making untrue or misguided claims” about them and their music.
In a statement posted on their social media following the Bristol gig cancellation, Oi Va Voi said: “After over 20 years of playing in many countries to audiences of many backgrounds, cultures and religions, we find ourselves facing the cancellation of one of our gigs in our home country.
“Anyone who knows Oi Va Voi knows that we sing songs which are socially conscious, humanitarian, and speak to audiences across divides. We are a non-political band who plays to bring people together, not to polarise them. And we are proud of it.
“But the groups applying pressure have clearly not listened to our output, or seen us perform. They are taking one fact, the ethnicity of some of our members, and using it as evidence for damning accusations about our beliefs and our right to perform in our home country.”
Earlier this month, the band released Water’s Edge – their first album since 2018’s Memory Drop. It features the upcoming single Dance Again, a song inspired by the Hamas attack of October 7 from the perspective of British Jews.
