The organizers of the Good Vibes Festival from Malaysia have given a week’s margin to the British band The 1975 to pay $2.6M in damages
On July 21, The 1975 performed in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) at the Good Vibes Festival, where they were headlining. Even so, the performance did not last too long since the singer Matthew Healy criticized the country’s homophobic laws and then kissed the band’s bassist Ross MacDonald. after the kiss, Healy told the public “it’s fucking ridiculous to tell people what they can do with this and that”pointing to his groin. “If you want to invite me here to do a show, you can fuck off. I’ll keep your money, you can censor me, but I’ve done this before and it doesn’t feel good, and I’m screwed.”. As a result of these facts, the Ministry of Communications and Digital of Malaysia canceled the remaining two days of the festival.
Earlier this week, the festival organizer, Future Sound Asia, announced that they intended to claim for economic damages. Still, the $2.6 million figure was not disclosed at the time. In a statement to the magazine Rolling Stonethe lawyer of Future Sound Asia, David Matthewconfirmed that “the claim against The 1975 It is essentially for breach of contract.”. He continued: “The representative of Sr. Healy categorically assured in writing before the show that the Sr. Healy and the live performance of The 1975 were to adhere to all local guidelines and regulations during their performance in Malaysia. Unfortunately, the guarantee was ignored.”. Besides, Rolling Stone also reported that a number of Malaysian musicians who were scheduled to play at the festival are preparing a class action lawsuit against the British group for financial losses resulting from the festival’s canceled dates.
The days after the events, some of the Malaysian attendees and various queer people in the country complained through social networks such as TikTok, and criticized the behavior of Healy and the band. They commented that the attitude with which he went to the festival and his white savior complex did not help the situation or the population of the country at all. A country, with a culture and values especially traditional and conservative.
On the other hand, there were also those who blamed them for the little empathy they had for their Malaysian fans. Many had bought the season tickets exclusively to see them, and they said that the group did not care that the most affected in this situation were these same fans who were left without enjoying their concert. However, some of their fans disagreed with these complaints and continued to defend the band.