Bambie Thug pulls out of Bludfest and announces break from touring to “prioritise mental and physical health”

Bambie Thug has pulled out of Bludfest and announced a break from touring. READ MORE: Bambie Thug interview: “Change can be done with music, and people listen through art” The festival, which is organised and designed by Yungblud, is set to take place on June 27, in Hradec Králové, Czechia, near Prague, and hosted at the multifunctional Park 360. Bambie Thug was initially slated to perform at the festival’s first-ever edition outside of the UK, but told fans today (June 19) that they are no longer on the line-up.

The Irish solo star, real name Bambie Ray Robinson, took to Instagram to share the news, writing: “To my gorgeous fans who have been waiting so patiently for me to perform again and who are coming to see me at Bludfest, I am sorry to inform you that under advice from my management I won’t be able to take part in this year’s festival.” “I am so grateful to Yungblud for the opportunity, I really tried to make it work but unfortunately I won’t be taking to the stage for the forseeable,” they added. “I have to prioritise my mental and physical health at this time.

” Bambie Thug went on to write: “Please hold tight, I promise when I return to performing it will be worth the wait.” In 2024, Bambie Thug became the first openly non-binary act to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest with their track ‘Doomsday Blue’. Robinson later became one of 70 former contestants to sign a letter calling for Israel to be banned for fear of “normalising and whitewashing” alleged war crimes in Palestine.

View this post on Instagram As for Bludfest, Yungblud will headline the festival, and joining him on the bill are Scottish rock heavyweights Biffy Clyro, psychedelic icons Primal Scream, die-pop favourites Pale Waves, art-rock trio Palaye Royale, and Atlanta rapper Destroy Lonely. Also on the line-up for 2026 are London-based Leap, Jesse Jo Stark, Nieve Ella, and Pam Rabbit. Visit here for tickets.

The inaugural event, organised and designed by the singer, took place at Milton Keynes Bowl in summer 2024, with the Doncaster artist (real name Dominic Harrison) telling fans it would be “the biggest gathering of our culture”. It then returned in 2025 for a “bigger and better” second instalment, returning to the Milton Keynes site and hosting performances from Chase Atlantic, Denzel Curry, Rachel Chinouriri and more. The plans to bring the festival overseas has been on the table for years now, and Yungblud hinted at the idea back in March 2024, when he spoke to NME about the inaugural edition.

“It’s all about unity, love and a place that people can come to… This is a place that you can come to and be utterly yourself with your mates, your family or completely on your own. If people don’t know who you really are and you’re hiding it, come to fucking BludFest and do it,” he said. “My plan is to eventually take it worldwide, but it had to start in the UK.

Hopefully, it’s going to be like something no one else has seen before because my mind is mental and I wanted to put that into a physical world. When you’re walking through those gates at BludFest, you are walking into a physical manifestation of Yungblud.” Later that year, he also dropped more hints about where he wanted to bring the festival, ​​saying at the time that his “plan [was] to take it to Paris and Prague and Australia,” and eventually plan for it to “be a two-day event.

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