Earl Sweatshirt and political commentator Hasan Piker will no longer be appearing at SXSW London this week.

The festival is running in Shoreditch this week (June 1 to 6) and had been due to see Sweatshirt as one of its featured performers, but organisers confirmed earlier today (June 1) that the Chicago rapper was unable to attend.

Writing on Instagram, SXSW London said that Sweatshirt had “met with an accident” that has made him unable to perform. “We’re sad that we won’t be able to welcome him to London this year, and we know that this will be disappointing to fans,” they added. “His wellbeing must come first”.

Sweatshirt was due to play as part of a showcase at Shoreditch Town Hall tomorrow (June 2), with MIKE now set to take his place on the bill.

View this post on Instagram

It has also emerged that Piker, the Turkish-American Twitch streamer and political commentator known online as HasanAbi, will not appear at SXSW London after being prevented from entering the UK.

The UK Home Office revoked his Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), which allows foreign nationals to travel to Britain without first obtaining a visa. The government said that his presence in the UK “may not be conducive to the public good”. The same action was taken against Piker’s fellow Young Turks broadcaster Cenk Uygur.

Piker, who was also due to speak at an event run by Oxford students this week, has angrily criticised SXSW London organisers, saying on X that “they totally didn’t defend me or Cenk at all”, adding: “They’re actual fucking losers and I will never work with them for the rest of my life.” He also encouraged followers who had bought tickets to see him at the festival to “demand a refund”.

The commentator is an outspoken critic of the Israeli government and said during an appearance on Pod Save America that he would “vote for Hamas over Israel every single time”, describing them as “1000 times better” than the Netanyahu government.

Labour MP David Taylor had called for Piker to be prevented from speaking at SXSW London last week, imploring organisers to “act responsibly”, while Green Party leader Zack Polanski has said Piker’s ban is “grim” and a “clear warning” of the “dangerous road” that the UK is going down.

Ash Sarkar, the Novara Media journalist that had been due to chair the discussion featuring Piker, initially called on the festival to “facilitate a way for Hasan and Cenk to contribute remotely”, and later pulled out of the event entirely.

“If I were in their shoes, I would hope that any organisation which invited me to speak, and had their programming interfered with by the Home Office, would have had the minimal expected integrity to offer some defence of lawful free expression and condemn government outreach,” she wrote.

Zarah Sultana, the left-wing MP for Your Party, has written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to “demand” that she reverse the “indefensible” decision to band Piker and Uygur. “It raises serious questions about freedom of expression, the right to challenge government policy, and the extent to which immigration powers are being weaponised as instruments of political control,” she wrote.

“The question must be asked directly: was this decision taken to suppress criticism of the Israeli government and to silence those challenging both this government’s and the US administration’s role in enabling the ongoing genocide in Gaza?” she added.

Last year, a number of artists pulled out of SXSW London in protest of appearances from Tony Blair and David Cameron, among others, with some accusing the event of “artwashing” by booking speakers “deeply complicit in the current genocide of Palestinian people”.

A spokesperson told NME at the time that “SXSW London respects everyone’s views and positions and aims to create an open, diverse space for debate and discussion.”

“Across the breadth of the festival, with over 800 speakers, we have a broad range of global leaders spanning the technology and cultural industries, their inclusion does not represent an endorsement of any particular position or viewpoint,” they added.

The post Earl Sweatshirt and Hasan Piker will no longer be appearing at SXSW London 2026 appeared first on NME.