Musicians flee festival after invitation from MAGA Trump supporter

The bands and headliner of an upcoming music festival in Orlando, Florida are pulling out of the lineup after learning that Kyle Rittenhouse has been invited as a guest.

The Shell Shock II festival's headliner, metalcore band Evergreen Terrace, announced in a social media post on Saturday that the band would no longer be attending the Oct. 17 festival due to Rittenhouse's performance. Loudwire reported that a Slipknot cover band will now replace them as headliners.

“Evergreen Terrace has always supported and continues to support philanthropic events for veterans, education about post-traumatic stress disorder, child poverty, and more, but we will not stand for murderers like Kyle Rittenhouse capitalizing on their pseudo-celebrity,” Evergreen Terrace said his statement.

“Unfortunately, we failed to do our due diligence in this particular event. Even after they offered to pull Kyle from the event, we discovered several affiliated companies that we simply disagreed with,” the statement continued.

Loudwire reported that at least three other bands – Southpaw, Let Me Bleed and American Hollow – also pulled out of the festival.

Rittenhouse was charged with murder, attempted murder and reckless endangerment for killing two men and wounding a third with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle during a summer 2020 protest against the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake. A year later he was acquitted after claiming self-defense.

USA Today reported that festival founder Tyler Hoover confirmed Tuesday that Rittenhouse would be attending the event.

“We do not discriminate,” Hoover said in the statement, according to USA Today. “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 asking for their support, one of which was Kyle Rittenhouse.”

According to the Eventbrite page, the “Shell Shock II” festival is a “PTSD charity and awareness event.” It's being promoted by The Antihero Podcast, which accused the “liberal mob” on Instagram of trying to undermine their event.

“We were silent. But we are preparing. The liberal mob tried to destroy Shell Shock. But we won't allow it. This is about more than just a concert. “This is a war of ideology,” the Instagram post said.

Rittenhouse was hailed as a MAGA hero and was once described as a “nice young man” by former President Trump after meeting him at his Mar-a-Lago estate. He recently got into trouble when he said he wouldn't vote for Trump.

However, he changed course after receiving backlash from conservatives. He said his previous comments about not supporting Trump were “ill-informed and unproductive.”