Florida metal festival loses headliner and other acts after announcing Kyle Rittenhouse as a special guest

A metal festival in Florida, USA, has lost its headliner and multiple other acts after announcing Kyle Rittenhouse as a special guest.

Shell Shock II is scheduled to take place in Orlando on October 19. But headliner Evergreen Terrace have pulled out after organisers announced 21-year-old Rittenhouse's involvement as a VIP guest.

Rittenhouse drove from his home state of Illinois to Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020 amid unrest and joined with a group of people who claimed to be protecting businesses from the troubles.

The unrest was the result of protests following the shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer.

Rittenhouse shot three people, two of whom died. He was eventually acquitted of all charges, including homicide, after pleading self defence.

A Slipknot tribute act will now take the Shell Shock II headline slot.

Evergreen Terrace say in a statement: "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.

"Unfortunately we did not do our due diligence with this particular event. 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."

Another of the bands to pull out, Southpaw, say in a statement of their own: "We knew going into this, that the festival was veteran based, which we support. But knew nothing of a particular individual being a main focus of support for the show until after accepting it.

"Due to events that have taken place and drama surrounding this particular individual, we made the decision to respectfully step down. This simply is not what we signed up for. Period. Southpaw does not and not get involved in politics. Therefore we not align ourselves with it."

In response, Shell Shock organisers say: "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."

Tyler Hoover, host of The Antihero Podcast and Shell Shock founder, made a more detailed statement in an Instagram, post, 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 shit, 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, ’cause guess what, you can’t kill spirit. You can’t kill punk. And you can’t fucking kill Shell Shock'."

Let Me Bleed & American Hollow have also stepped down from the lineup after learning of Rittenhouse's involvement.