Summer is over but the festivals continue. Shell Shock II is scheduled to begin next week on October 19. Shell Shock is a music festival and charity event to aid veterans with PTSD.
But when Shell Shock announced that Kyle Rittenhouse (the teen who was responsible for killing two people at a protest against racial injustice in Kenosha, Wisconsin – he was acquitted of homicide) would be a special guest, several of the bands scheduled to perform have withdrawn from the festival.
Evergreen Terrace was the first to withdraw; Southpaw, Let Me Bleed, and American Hollow have followed and also withdrawn from the festival.
Evergreen Terrace took to social media to explain their decision saying, “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… 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.”
Southpaw noted 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.”
Let Me Bleed added, “though we are advocates of free speech we are collectively not a political band. 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.”
Planning to continue with the festival, Shell Shock has booked the Slipknot tribute band SiC.
Shell Shock CEO and founder Tyler Hoover also spoke on the situation saying, “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 s**t, you guys are the mentally ill portion of society. You guys are the ones that are manipulated. The lynch mob here to take down Shell Shock will not win. It doesn’t matter, because guess what? You can’t kill spirit. You can’t kill punk. And you can’t f***ing kill Shell Shock.”
Hoover added in a statement to “USA Today” that they were, “not going to turn anyone down who wishes to attend; everyone is welcome. 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.”
Last week Orlando was one of the areas ravaged by Hurricane Milton with thousands of people from around the state holding up while power is restored and the area is cleared of debris.