NOAHFINNCE and Pinkshift hit out at Obtain Pageant’s coverage on trans followers’ rest room entry

NOAHFINNCE and Pinkshift have hit out at Obtain Pageant’s coverage relating to rest room entry for trans followers.

The rock and steel competition is ready to return to its residence of Donington Park, Leicestershire, subsequent month – working between June 13-15. Inexperienced Day, Sleep Token and KoRn will all be first-time headliners, and different names on the invoice embrace Weezer, Intercourse Pistols that includes Frank Carter, Jimmy Eat World, Poppy, Detest, Jerry Cantrell and extra.

With lower than a month to go till the competition kicks off, NOAHFINNCE has taken to social media to name out the competition for upholding a coverage that prohibits trans girls from utilizing girls’s bogs, and trans males from utilizing males’s services.

Within the screenshot shared by the musician, seemingly from an electronic mail question to Obtain, the competition’s coverage reads: “We’re pleased with the fame the Obtain group has by way of variety, and can all the time look to advertise the protection and luxury of all competition attendees together with transgender and non-binary prospects.

“We can be following the interim steerage issued by the Equalities and Human Rights Fee (EHRC) on 25 April 2025 right here. Their steerage states that ‘trans girls (organic males) shouldn’t be permitted to make use of the ladies’s services and trans males (organic girls) shouldn’t be permitted to make use of the lads’s services’”.

Writing excessive of the screenshot, NOAHFINNCE shared: “Hey @downloadfest what the fuck are you doing inviting trans individuals to play your competition however not permitting them the easy proper of utilizing the right lavatory?”

Hey @DownloadFest what the fuck are you doing. How have you ever acquired the gall to ask trans individuals like me to play your competition after which ban them from utilizing the bathroom? If the one approach we will piss is by outing ourselves then you definitely’ve created an unsafe surroundings… pic.twitter.com/W0oLIa5P4U

— NOAHFINNCE👹 (@noahfinnadams) May 27, 2025

“I had a good time enjoying final yr however won’t be attending once more if I’ve to queue up for the women’ lavatory and my trans sisters need to threat outing themselves within the males’s lavatory. All this does is put trans individuals in peril,” he added. “For those who’re enjoying @downloadfest, attending it and even simply conscious of it, say one thing about it.”

NOAHFINNCE, who publicly got here out as a transgender man in 2017, continued within the caption, writing: “What the fuck are you doing? How have you ever acquired the gall to ask trans individuals like me to play your competition after which ban them from utilizing the bathroom? If the one approach we will piss is by outing ourselves then you definitely’ve created an unsafe surroundings.”

The coverage outlined by Obtain organisers seems to narrate to the UK Supreme Courtroom ruling on April 16, during which judges unanimously dominated that the authorized definition of a girl is predicated on organic intercourse below the Equality Act.

One other act to have referred to as out Obtain for the coverage relating to lavatory entry for trans persons are American rock band Pinkshift, who carried out on the competition final yr and took to Instagram Stories to name out the choice.

“Enjoying @downloadfest was enjoyable final yr however what fucking music competition polices gendered bogs?” they wrote. “That’s loopy and so unsafe, thanks @noahfinnce for being the one artist I’ve seen discuss this… if Obtain is a part of your life then communicate up, they suppose they’ll get away with discrimination within the ripe yr of 2025”.

At time of writing, Obtain has not responded to the feedback from NOAHFINNCE or Pinkshift. NME has reached out to competition organisers for remark relating to the coverage.

As outlined by the Equality Human Rights Commission, the April ruling from the Supreme Courtroom signifies that, in locations open to the general public, trans girls shouldn’t use girls’s services comparable to bathrooms.

BBC later reported that over 1,000 cultural figures then signed an open letter which claimed that the ruling “overlooks the necessity to shield trans, non-binary and intersex individuals from discrimination”. It additionally added that many leaders throughout the UK’s cultural sector have been “unwilling” to police which bathrooms individuals select to make use of.

Charli XCX, Self Esteem and Wolf Alice are among the many many artists to have additionally signed an open letter of solidarity to the trans group from the UK music business. On high of that, quite a few figures within the leisure world expressed their assist for these affected. Those that have spoken out in assist of the trans group embrace Scissor Sisters, Fragrance Genius, Rubbish, Rachel Chinouriri, JADE, Lambrini Ladies and Billy Bragg.