London O2 Arena apologises for refusing man entry over ‘Free Gaza’ shirt
nme.comPeter Kay live show at the venue were refused access by security, who deemed his t-shirt against policy.The man was asked to buy another t-shirt to change into, and his request to turn the t-shirt inside out was refused, with security saying it must stay with them and not enter the venue.Another member of security told the couple that the O2 is a “non-political venue” and that it takes a “neutral” stance on such slogans.AEG Europe, the company which owns the O2 Arena, later told Middle East Monitor that the couple had been refused due to the venue’s ‘prohibited items’ policy, which bans “items that ‘in our reasonable opinion, may cause danger or disruption to any event or to other visitors.’”A video of the incident has since circulated online, leading to calls to boycott the venue.Now, the O2 has issued a statement saying they “sincerely apologise for any offence and upset this incident may have caused.”He was denied entry to the O2 for wearing a t-shirt that said "Free Gaza." pic.twitter.com/ZYUInPamD7— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) August 16, 2024“On any given night we host up to 20,000 people and we try to make the best decisions we can, with the information we have available, in a timely fashion,” the statement read. “We don’t get every decision right, all of the time, and on this occasion we made a judgement call and got it wrong.
For that, we apologise.”They went on to say: “Safety and security are our paramount priority at all times, and we do everything we can to provide a safe and respectful environment for all our guests.
It is for this reason our ‘prohibited items’ policy exists, stipulated in our terms and conditions for all events.The statement says that the venue’s policy is to prohibit items that may cause danger.
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