Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival is suing all of The 1975’s band members for €2.2 million following Matty Healy’s same-sex kiss which led to the event being shut down in July 2023.
The festival paid the band €350,000 for their performance after they agreed to abide by “all local guidelines and regulations.” However, during the British pop-rock group’s performance, Healy launched into a speech against Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws before staging a same-sex kiss with his bandmate in protest. The country’s colonial-era civil laws criminalise same-sex relationships, and homosexual activity is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Following the kiss between The 1975 bandmates, the three-day event was cancelled resulting in €2.2 million in lost revenue. Future Sound Asia festival organisers claim the band knowingly breached their contract, citing several alleged behaviour code violations including Healy’s onstage kiss, alcohol consumption, undressing, and political commentary.
The 1975 is facing a $2.4 MILLION lawsuit from Malaysia’s Good Vibes festival following a controversial incident at last July’s performance.
The festival claims that the band’s on-stage kiss, involving lead singer Matty Healy, led to the shutdown of the event and alleges that… pic.twitter.com/jLAG6GUIvq
— Pop Hive (@thepophive) July 30, 2024
Variety reported that court documents filed in a UK high court claim that the band and their management team were well aware of the stage rules which prohibited smoking, swearing, drinking, removing clothes, or talking about politics or religion.
The lawsuit claims the band first decided they “should not perform at the music festival” before changing their mind and agreeing to go ahead with the performance while acting “in ways that were intended to breach the Guidelines”.
The Malaysia Central Agency for the Application for Foreign Filming and Performance by Foreign Artists (PUSPAL) also included a ban on “kissing, kissing a member of the audience or carrying out such actions among themselves.”
According to court documents, during the performance, Healy gave a “provocative speech” and engaged in a “long pretend passionate embrace” with bassist Ross MacDonald “with the intention of causing offence and breaching the regulations and the terms of the agreement”.
The documents assert the band was previously made aware of these rules when they first performed at the festival in 2016 and the rules were reiterated multiple times ahead of the band’s 2023 performance.
The lawsuit further accuses Healy of behaving “with the intention of causing offence”.
The band allegedly brought a bottle of wine on stage so Healy “could have easy access” to alcohol. Court documents describe his allegedly intoxicated performance where he appeared to behave “in a drunken way” and “vomit on the stage and/or grunt and spit excessively including towards the audience”.
Matt Healy’s performance has been widely criticised by Malaysia’s LGBTQ+ community, who say his act of “performative activism” only made their lives more difficult.
Malaysian LGBTQ+ activist Thilaga Sulathireh told CNN that Matty’s onstage alcohol consumption and use of profanity “builds into the stereotype of how LGBT people are rude, against local norms… are seen as these people who are not within society.”
LGBTQ+ activists have also accused him of displaying a “white-saviour complex” which ultimately caused more harm than good since his actions resulted in the shutting down of one of the few remaining safe spaces for queer people in the Southeast Asian country.
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