Metalcore band Evergreen Terrace announced on Saturday they would be withdrawing from an upcoming Orlando, Fla., music festival following the announcement that Kyle Rittenhouse would be in attendance, Loudwire is reporting.
The Florida-based band was set to top the bill at the “Shell Shock II” festival on Thursday, Oct. 19, which is said to be a charity event established to raise money for and spread information about veterans suffering PTSD, the report said.
According to the outlet, organizers posted to Instagram that Rittenhouse had been booked to appear as a special “VIP guest” at the festival, setting off a firestorm of political division among fans. The post has since been deleted.
“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,” the band said in a statement on social media.
Three other bands, Southpaw, Let Me Bleed and American Hollow have since pulled out of the event as well, according to published reports.
Rittenhouse was acquitted in 2021 on charges of murder, attempted murder and reckless endangerment after killing two men and wounding a third with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle in Kenosha, Wis., during a protest over police violence in the wake of the 2020 shooting of Jacob Blake.
Festival promotors, “The Antihero Podcast,” defiantly firing back on Instagram, blaming the so-called “liberal mob” for attempting to “destroy” the event.
“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 post read.