An upcoming music festival in Florida has lost its headliner and multiple other acts after announcing that Kyle Rittenhouse would be appearing as a guest.
Shell Shock II, a metal festival set to be held on Oct. 19 in Orlando, billed as a "PTSD Charity and Awareness Event" sponsored by The Antihero Podcast, has faced backlash since it first announced Rittenhouse as a guest
Rittenhouse shot three people, two fatally, at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in August 2020. Rittenhouse was later acquitted of all charges in connection to the shooting.
Following the announcement of Rittenhouse as a guest, the festival's headliner, Evergreen Terrace, announced in a statement on social media that they were pulling out of the festival.
"Evergreen Terrace has always supported and continues to support philanthropic events for veterans, PTSD awareness, child poverty, and many more, but we will not align with an event promoting a perceived murderer such as Kyle Rittenhouse capitalizing off of their pseudo celebrity. Unfortunately we did not do our due diligence with this particular event. Even after they offered to pull Kyle from the event, we discovered several associated entities that we simply do not agree with. As advocates for free speech we are respectfully canceling the Shell Shock festival. We will be personally contributing to a veterans charity and urge you to do the same. The promoters have been nothing less than understanding," the statement said in part.
Evergreen Terrace announced in a Facebook post Thursday that the group is organizing a show with other bands that dropped out of Shell Shock, adding that proceeds would benefit "an associated veterans organization."
"We play shows, not rallies," the post said in its conclusion.
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Other bands that dropped from the festival include Southpaw, American Hollow and Let Me Bleed, according to Loudwire.
The Antihero Podcast, who is sponsoring the festival, said in an Instagram post that "this is now about more than concert."
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"This is a war of ideology," the post said.
According to Loudwire, the festival will now be headlined by SiC, a Slipknot cover band originating from Texas.
