Various bands have pulled out of Shell Shock II after the festival’s organisers announced that Kenosha protest shooter Kyle Rittenhouse had been invited to appear.
The metal music festival, which doubles as a charity event raising money and awareness for veterans and first responders with PTSD, will take place in Orlando, Florida on October 19. Following the announcement of Rittenhouse making an appearance at the festival, Evergreen Terrace – who were serving as headliners – pulled out, with the likes of Southpaw, Let Me Bleed, and American Hollow following in the same steps.
Rittenhouse garnered national attention in 2020 after shooting three protestors in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing two of them and leaving one injured. He claimed that the shooting was in self-defence and was acquitted of homicide charges in 2021.
In a statement shared on Evergreen Terrace’s official Facebook page, the band shared: “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.”
They continued: “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 cancelling the Shell Shock festival. We will be personally contributing to a veterans charity and urge you to do the same.”
Festival organisers have announced that the Texan Slipknot tribute band named SiC will be filling in as headliners.
Southpaw also shared a statement explaining that they had agreed to perform at the festival as it was raising money for a good cause and added that they “knew nothing of a particular individual being a main focus of support for the show until after accepting… This simply is not what we signed up for. Period.”
“Though we are advocates of free speech we are collectively not a political band,” the band Let Me Bleed wrote in their statement. “It wasn’t until after we agreed to play the festival that these problematic and potentially alienating entities were being used to market the show and that is something we simply cannot condone.”
The Antihero Podcast – who is hosting the festival – and Tyler Hoover – Shell Shock II’s founder and CEO – both took to their social media pages to share their response to the bands pulling out.
“We have been silent. But we are prepping. The liberal mob attempted to destroy Shell Shock. But we will not allow it. This is now about more than a concert. This is a war of ideology,” the podcast wrote in a post on their Instagram page.
Hoover shared an Instagram reel in which he criticised the bands and said: “I’m here to tell you, you’re not punk, you’re not hardcore. You people, the people that are trolling and the people that are talking shit, you guys are the mentally ill portion of society. You guys are the ones that are manipulated.” He then went on to declare that the “Lynch mob” can’t “kill Shell Shock.”
In a statement shared with USA Today, Hoover said the fest is “not going to turn anyone down who wishes to attend; everyone is welcome.” He continued, “We do not discriminate. Shell Shock is a PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) Charity and Awareness event to support our military Veterans and first responders. Many influencers reached out to us to give their support, one of which was Kyle Rittenhouse.”