It’s certainly been a rocky week for the inaugural ‘Kentucky Irate Fest‘. Amid disputes over the apparent buy-on practices and ticket selling expectations being put upon local bands, and even an apparent job threat from one of the co-founders, a mass exodus of artists have departed the festival.
Among the first wave of bands confirmed to have left were:
Isolator
Artica
Belushi Speed Ball
Wake Up In Tsunami
Sero//Tonin
Guerilla Warfare
Cohen
Foxbat
You can read more about their departures here. Since then, even more artists have exited the fledgling festival, among some of the more notable of the apparent dozens to have exited the fest are the following:
Left To Suffer
The Last Ten Seconds Of Life
Kaonashi
Born A New
Downswing
Boundaries
Summoning The Lich
Kingz & Thieves
The Behest Of Serpents
The Delirium Effect
Inferious
Fight From Within
It has also since come to light that Until The Dead Walk were ejected from the festival amid a rape allegation leveled against their vocalist Ren Young. Sero\\tonin vocalist Melissa George, a band who were previously booked for the fest, came forward with her allegation against Young publicly yesterday via social media, you can read what she had to say in its entirety over at Facebook.
It is claimed that Ren was also an investor in the ‘Kentucky Irate Festival‘, according to a conversation shared by George with one of the festival’s organizers. You can see the screencaps of that here.
In light of the disturbing allegations made against Young by George and others, Until The Dead Walk have also been removed from their current tour with Filth, My Own Will and more. Filth commented of that yesterday, August 16th:
“In light of accusations being brought to the attention of the touring package, Until the Dead Walk has been removed from the Smoked Out Tour, effective immediately.
All the remaining dates will proceed according to plan and we appreciate your patience at this time.”
Young for his part has allegedly claimed to be innocent of the allegations. Meanwhile, in response to the departures, the festival have announced the addition of four more artists, including Narthex, Impera, Detest The Throne and Pacific Skyline.
Despite the growing controversy, the festival is still set to go ahead at The MG Prime Entertainment Complex in Louisville, KY on August 26th to 28th. Headlining sets from Slaughter To Prevail, Rivers Of Nihil and Norma Jean are still booked to take place at the fest. You can find more details at iratefest.com.
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