The Story So Far…

“Whether you like it or not, you’re a catalyst. That’s what you are born for.”  - Sinéad O’Connor

Guess who’s back in the news? Kneecap have been catalysts for a new wave of Irish hip-hop, Irish culture and language, and independent cinema. Now, in 2025, they find themselves at the forefront of collective action by artists around the globe standing in solidarity with Palestine.

Kneecap is now the most talked-about group in the world, mobilising a generation in moshpits and on dancefloors, in fields and in clubs, and online and off. At the core of this, are undeniably exhilarating tunes. This is hip-hop at its most exciting – a potent and revolutionary force, smashing bans, barricades, censorship, and the occasional bottle of Buckfast. Their fiercely intelligent breakthrough concept album, Fine Art (2024), produced by Toddla T, catapulted them into the mainstream, in tandem with their BAFTA-winning feature film, Kneecap, starring Michael Fassbender, which was short-listed for an Academy Award.

Anyone who thought the Kneecap phenomenon may have peaked in their breakout year of 2024, was seriously mistaken. Following multiple sold out US and UK tours, performances at some of the biggest festivals across Europe - including Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, Sziget, and Electric Picnic - as well as sold out tours of Australia and New Zealand featuring a more than 10,000-strong crowd turning up in blistering heat at a free outdoor show in Melbourne, Kneecap took to the stage at Coachella in 2025.

This landmark gig mobilised American youth at the festival, who packed Kneecap’s shows across both weekends, vocally advocating for peace and Palestinian freedom themselves. For this, Kneecap faced a barrage of criticism from conservative forces, demonstrating once again the power of music and of artists who refuse to shirk from the truth of exposing the brutal realities of unjust war and oppression, from Vietnam to Gaza, from apartheid-era South Africa to the streets of Belfast and Derry, and the power of young people to call this suffering to a halt. Kneecap found themselves in a media and political maelstrom, but stuck to their principals, with their fandom and crowds only growing larger.

A headline performance at the Wide Awake Festival in London in May, shortly after Mo Chara was slapped with a charge from the British police, saw over 20,000 attendees descend on the main stage arena to witness a gig subsequently lauded by the Guardian, the Telegraph, Pitchfork, the Irish Times, the London Standard, and described by The Times as a “historic moment… Exciting, funny and anarchic, with a rebellious edge that has not been seen in rock or rap for years.” Kneecap donated their fee to Médecins Sans Frontières.

It was at this gig that Kneecap revealed their latest rallying call, a drum and bass banger, The Recap ft. Mozey, eviscerating the actions of now Tory-leader Kemi Badenoch for attempting to withhold arts funding from the band. In that case, Kneecap took the British government to court, and won, donating the grant to youth groups from both communities in the North of Ireland.

They are now set to join forces with Fontaines D.C. for a series of massive summer outdoor shows across the UK and Ireland, and are back in the studio creating the follow-up to Fine Art, with plenty of material to draw from, to say the least. In 2025, Kneecap shows are now selling out in seconds. Kneecap will perform at a number of huge festival dates around Europe this summer, including a highly anticipated return to Glastonbury. They will also perform a massive outdoor show in Dublin, as well as two December concerts at Dublin’s 3Arena, the largest indoor arena on the island of Ireland. They are also set to play Wembley Arena in London.

Whether they’re rolling up to Sundance in a police Land Rover, encouraging tens of thousands of young people to learn Irish, breaking box office records, storming festivals with epic main stage sets, annoying right-wing politicians the world over, or earning support and solidarity from the likes of Noel Gallagher, Annie Mac, Elton John, Amyl & the Sniffers, Paul Weller, Primal Scream, Massive Attack, on banners in football stadiums, or in graffiti on city walls around the world, Kneecap’s message and mode of unity, community, collective action and the power of raving, punk, and rap, is all underscored with a revolutionary sound, and blistering live performances that have built a global wave of fans unified in the joy of solidarity and the shared sweat that flings from fine art like no other.

This is a moment and a movement. And it’s only just begun.