NEW YORK - An annual festival organized by the prestigious New Yorker magazine has disinvited a headlining guest, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, after numerous panelists announced they would drop out if he remained.

The magazine's editor-in-chief David Remnick, who would have interviewed the architect of US President Donald Trump's nationalist-populist campaign, announced the reversal on Twitter on Tuesday just hours after the lineup was made public and sparked a major backlash.

"I don't want well-meaning readers and staff members to think that I've ignored their concerns," wrote Remnick. "I've thought this through and talked to colleagues - and I've re-considered. I've changed my mind."

He added that the magazine had interviewed Bannon before and would do so again if the opportunity arose "in a more traditionally journalistic setting" rather than on stage.

Remnick's decision came after several panelists said they would not share a platform with Bannon, whose influence was seen as having driven Trump's travel ban on majority Muslim countries and his reaction to the killing of a protester by a white supremacist in Charlottesville, Virginia last year.

"If Steve Bannon is at the New Yorker festival I am out," wrote comedian and Hollywood producer Judd Apatow. "I will not take part in an event that normalizes hate."

"Bannon? And me? On the same program? Could never happen," added actor Jim Carrey. John Mulaney, Patton Oswalt and Bo Burnham were also among those who had threatened a boycott. - AFP