O2 Arena Made Me Take Off a Palestine Football Shirt to Watch Lorde

London’s O2 Arena has apologised after security guards ordered me to take off a Palestine football shirt or be removed from the venue as I attended a concert by Lorde, an outspoken Palestine supporter. Another Lorde fan was also told to remove a similar shirt.

At Lorde’s sold-out show at the 02 in Greenwich, London, on 16 November, security staff told me that my FC Palestina shirt could “cause offence”, despite no publicly available policy banning such items. In another incident, an attendee called Francesca was also told to remove an FC Palestina shirt. In both cases, multiple security staff were called to intervene and we had to remove our shirts.

After being let into the venue with no issues, walking through multiple checkpoints, I was approached by a female security guard as I left the level 1 toilets, who called me over. At first I wasn’t sure if she was speaking to me, but then she gestured to my FC Palestina shirt and said, “you need to take that off”.

I was alone at the time; my friends were in the crowd holding our places.

I said I would remove the shirt, as I had a jumper in my bag. The guard told me that if I didn’t, I would be escorted out. Even though I complied, she radioed for additional security. Several more staff arrived in what was otherwise a quiet hallway, bringing the total to five.

When I asked what rule I had broken and questioned how appropriate this was, given I was simply wearing a football t-shirt, I was told it was about “making sure everyone can have a nice time”. Other staff who joined said it was fine if I simply put the shirt in my bag. The original guard, however, insisted it be confiscated. After further discussion, I persuaded them to allow me to check it into the cloakroom instead. I was then escorted there by another member of the security team.

On the walk, the security guard whispered that he “obviously agreed” with me but that this was “policy”, adding that at a recent Haim concert Israeli flags were also not permitted.

In response to a formal complaint via email, the O2 said they were “treating this matter with the utmost seriousness” and said that urgent meetings were taking place.

When Novara Media requested a comment on the situation, the venue apologised.

An O2 Arena spokesperson said: “We sincerely apologise. The safety and security of our staff, visitors, and artists is always our paramount priority. In light of this incident, we are reviewing our procedures [and] will revisit training to prevent this happening again, and wish to extend our apologies once more for any offence this incident may have caused.”

 

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In a separate incident, Francesca, 30, was confronted by security and  told by a staff member: “I’m not here to get into a political argument… The policy is that we have no football tops, t-shirts with anything on it. Whether it’s England, Wales, Liverpool, Manchester, it’s not allowed.”

In footage seen by Novara Media, Francesca’s friend is heard challenging the decision, saying, “If she was wearing a Spain t-shirt, this would not be happening,” to which security appeared to respond, “It would not be allowed.”

The O2 later contradicted what the staff member said, saying: “The O2 Arena does not have a policy that prohibits any specific items of clothing, including those that display or highlight social causes, religion, political or nationality.”

While there are occasions where “additional restrictions may be imposed”, Sunday’s Lorde concert was not subject to additional restrictions.

The spokesperson added: “On any given night our event staff are hosting circa 20,000 people and are trying to make the best decisions with the information they have available, and in a timely fashion. We don’t get every decision right, all of the time, and regrettably on this occasion, the wrong judgment call was made as the result of a misinterpretation of the policies that we have in place and our escalation procedures were not followed correctly.”

Francesca said that while being escorted to hand the t-shirt in with staff to collect after the gig that a security manager stated that he was Palestinian. “This made me feel so disgusted that a corporation was forcing Palestinians to silence Palestinian solidarity,” she said. “Especially at a concert of an artist that is pro-Palestine.”

Francesca says that a venue manager apologised the following day, telling her the issue was being treated “with urgency”, and that when she asked for the exact wording of the policy, they said they didn’t have a policy on this and they don’t know why staff acted in such a way.

“I wear that jersey to the gym, at concerts, on flights, at work and no one has ever said anything. I’m the granddaughter of a Jewish refugee from Austria and I was so angry at the implication that a Palestine football shirt could be offensive,” she added.

These accounts echo earlier controversies.

In August 2024, the venue apologised after a man was refused entry to a Peter Kay show while wearing a “Free Gaza” T-shirt. Security said at the time that it was “against policy”. The O2 later stated that staff had “made a judgement call and got it wrong”. Following the incident, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and British Palestinian Committee wrote to the O2 expressing concern that this would happen again. Although they received an apology, their request for a meeting was declined.

Commenting on my experience at the Lorde concert, Ben Jamal, Director of the PSC, told Novara Media: “Clearly O2 have not addressed the systemic issue in terms of policy that seems to equate expressing solidarity for the Palestinian people with a danger or a disruption to other people visiting the venue. Silencing this solidarity not only serves to dehumanise Palestinian people, but also helps shield Israel from accountability for its well-documented crimes against them.”

Grammy award-winning New Zealand artist Lorde is vocally pro-Palestine, cancelling a planned concert in Tel Aviv in 2017, and in October this year, she shouted “free fucking Palestine” and lit the stage with the colours of the Palestinian flag at a gig in New York. Lorde has also joined the artist boycott No Music for Genocide, alongside Hayley Williams, Idles and Paloma Faith.