Jacksonville, Florida-based metalcore group Evergreen Terrace have dropped off the Shell Shock II festival that they were set to headline next month citing, amongst other things, the festival booking controversial conservative figure Kyle Rittenhouse as a “VIP Guest” at the event.
The festival is said to be raising funds and awareness around PTSD and is put on by The Anti Hero Podcast, with many of the bands booked for the event featuring active first responders. The social media accounts for this festival seem to have gone private in the wake of this controversy, but The PRP reports that the social media accounts announced that the festival organizers were “thrilled” to feature Rittenhouse.
For those who don’t remember, Rittenhouse is a divisive figure who is held up as a hero in right-wing circles after a 2020 incident where he drove to Kenosha, WI to protect local businesses in the wake of the protests over the shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer. During the incident, Rittenhouse shot three men, killing two of them, and later claimed self-defense which resulted in him being found not guilty. Supporters of Rittenhouse like to point to the backgrounds of the men that Rittenhouse killed, particularly the sex crimes that Joseph Rosenbaum was convicted of in 2002, while his detractors argue that Rittenhouse was unlikely to know anything about that when he killed those men.
“Evergreen Terrace has always supported and continues to support philanthropic events for veterans, PTSD awareness, child poverty, and many more,” reads a statement form the band on Instagram, “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,” the statement continues. “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.
“’Lines we draw in the sand…depend on where we stand.’
See you soon, Orlando.”
It remains unclear where the event stands now and if Rittenhouse is still part of the bill.
