Kanye West [Renan Facciolo_CC BY-SA 2.0]

PARK campaigners have welcomed this week’s decision to cancel Wireless Festival as “brilliant news”.

The annual festival in Finsbury Park has been put on pause because its headline act has had his visa blocked, rather than in response to calls to end using the public land for commercial ventures, but neighbours hope the break will “give pause” to the council to reflect on its longer-term agreement with Live Nation.

“Hopefully we get one summer weekend where the park is ours again, and it’s not a prison compound with steel walls”, said Katie Dawson, chair of the Friends of Finsbury Park, which has been lobbying Haringey Council to stop using the space as a “cash cow” for a decade.

She added: “I hope it gives pause so that they can think whether this relationship with Haringey Council and Live Nation is the right one”.

The Tribune reported last month that the Town Hall has signed another five-year contract with the festival organisers to continue hosting concerts and raves until 2032. “It really does suggest that Live Nation and Festival Republic are putting the screws in,” Ms Dawson said.

“They are worried that they won’t have a pliant Labour group running the council after the May elections, and wanted to have the contract signed. But it is the next council that will have to deal with the terms of the agreement that are not favourable to the community. It really ties the hands of the next council, which is a shock­ing way to run the Town Hall”.

Cancellation of this year’s Wireless followed a decision by the home office to refuse Kanye West – who now goes by “Ye” – permission to travel to the UK after a backlash to his planned performance.

Since 2015, the rapper has had frequent racist outbursts online, made a slew of anti-Semitic comments and supported members of the far-right. He has been banned and unbanned from X after posting messages like “I love Hitler” and “I am a Nazi”, and sold T-shirts with a swastika.

Mr West recently published a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal apologising to the Jewish and black communities for his comments, citing his 2016 bipolar diagnosis and “frontal lobe damage” caused by a high-profile car crash in 2002.

Anti-racism campaigners last week slammed the “disgusting” announcement of the “virulent anti-Semite”, and called for Wireless organisers to change their decision, and politicians across the political spectrum came out over the weekend to criticise the decision of festival organisers to invite Mr West to perform.

On Tuesday, Wireless released a statement which read: “The home office has withdrawn YE’s ETA, denying him entry into the UK. As a result, Wireless Festival is cancelled and refunds will be issued to all ticket holders. As with every Wireless Festival, multiple stakeholders were consulted in advance of booking YE and no concerns were highlighted at the time.

“Anti-Semitism in all its forms is abhorrent, and we recognise the real and personal impact these issues have had. As YE said today, he acknowledges that words alone are not enough, and in spite of this still hopes to be given the opportunity to begin a conversation with the Jewish community in the UK.”

A Haringey Council spokesperson said: “Approv­ing the hire of the park for a period of five years from 2028 to 2032 via a cabinet member signing, following consul­tation with key stakeholders, is in accordance with the council’s constitution – an approach that has been strongly tested and upheld through a judicial review.

“The ongoing partnership with Festival Republic will ensure the council can continue to invest in Finsbury Park as we receive around £1.2million every year from our major events and it is a requirement that the money is put directly back into the park.”