Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival organiser sues British band The 1975 in UK courts

KUALA LUMPUR – The organiser of Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival has filed a lawsuit against British band The 1975 and its individual members, after frontman Matty Healy

criticised the country’s anti-LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) laws and kissed a bandmate onstage

 during the concert in 2023.

International portal Variety reported on July 30 that festival organiser Future Sound Asia is seeking £1.9 million (S$3.3 million) after the band’s actions resulted in the festival being shut down.

The organiser reportedly said in documents filed at Britain’s High Court that The 1975 and their management team were aware of the numerous prohibitions the band had to abide by in order to perform.

Future Sound Asia said in the lawsuit that the band performed at the festival in 2016 and had been told of the prohibitions then. It was reminded multiple times ahead of their performance in July 2023. The prohibitions included swearing, smoking and drinking on stage, removing their clothes and talking about politics or religion.

Further guidelines issued by the Malaysia Central Agency for the Application for Foreign Filming and Performance by Foreign Artistes (Puspal) included a ban on “kissing, kissing a member of the audience or carrying out such actions among themselves”.

The band, who were paid US$350,000 (S$470,000) to perform, agreed to abide by the rules to take part in the festival.

But on the first day of the three-day concert, on July 21, 2023, Healy slammed Malaysia’s LGBTQ laws and kissed his male bandmate Ross MacDonald onstage, leading to the immediate cancellation of the Good Vibes Festival’s final two days.

The lawsuit states that Puspal initially rejected the band’s application to perform in 2023 over a 2018 article about Healy’s drug addiction and subsequent recovery. However, the application was granted after the band made an appeal, promising that Healy would adhere to “local guidelines and regulations”.

According to Variety, the lawsuit claims that the night before the festival, the band decided they “should not perform at the music festival” and discussed what action to take, before they eventually changed their minds and agreed to go ahead with the performance.

The band then decided to play a completely different setlist in protest and act in a way that was “intended to breach the guidelines”.

These acts included Healy making a “provocative speech” and taking part in a “long pretend passionate embrace” with bassist MacDonald “with the intention of causing offence and breaching the regulations and the terms of the agreement”.

“The band also planned to smuggle a bottle of wine onto the stage next to the main drum kit, so Healy could have easy access,” reported Variety, citing the filed documents.

In the lawsuit, Healy is also accused of drinking alcohol, acting in a drunken way, smoking cigarettes, appearing to vomit on the stage and or grunt and spit excessively including towards the audience, delivering a profanity-laden speech, and deliberately damaging a video drone hired by the festival organiser.

Following the kiss, Puspal officers ordered the band to stop their performance, at which point Healy was very aggressive towards them, the lawsuit alleged, swearing at them and others to the point that he had to be restrained by his managers, reported Variety.

It added that the day after the performance, the organiser’s licence was revoked and the remaining two days of the music festival, which were set to include performances from local and international bands, such as The Strokes, were cancelled.

“Immediately after leaving the festival, the lawsuit states, the band and their management had rushed to their hotels to collect their luggage, so they could leave the country the first thing the following morning as quickly as possible as they were aware the performance had breached Malaysian law,” reported Variety.

It added that Healy has since claimed he was

briefly imprisoned by the Malaysian authorities

following his onstage protest, and that the band have not yet filed a defence to the lawsuit.

In July 2023, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil ordered for the immediate cancellation of the Good Vibes Festival, following the controversial incident which took place at the Sepang International Circuit in Selangor.

Future Sound Asia then had to work out a refund mechanism, and extended their apologies to ticket holders, vendors, sponsors and partners. THE STAR/ ASIA NEWS NETWORK