UPDATE: Mysteryland Netherlands becomes the seventh festival to drop Ten Walls from its lineup, stating he will not be booked again at any of the festival’s global editions.
At least seven festivals have dropped Ten Walls from their lineups following a recent anti-gay Facebook post that the Lithuanian artist has since apologized for.
HARD Summer, Sónar, Creamfields, Pukkelpop, PITCH and Urban Art Forms Festival have canceled scheduled appearances by the producer — also known as Marijus Adomaitis — who scored a top 10 hit on the U.K. singles chart with “Walking With Elephants” last year.
The artist was also reportedly dropped by his booking agency Coda Music Agency, while Phonica Records has canceled all pre-orders for his new Sparta EP.
According to Gay Star News, Adomaitis posted a rant to his personal Facebook page that likened homosexuals to pedophiles and referred to them as “people of different breed.” Adomaitis has since deleted the post, and posted an apologetic statement to his artist page.
In a statement, HARD Summer cited Adomaitis’ “verbal attacks against a community we support to the fullest” for the cancelation. Sónar similarly called Adomaitis‘ statements “at odds with the nature and ethos of the festival,” while Creamfields condemned his “defamatory and prejudiced comments about the gay community” as “extremely offensive” and “not in line with the spirit of Creamfields.” Pukkelpop, PITCH, and Urban Art Forms Festival released similarly worded statements confirming the cancelations.
Fellow artists also took to Twitter to react to the offensive comments:
Last week I wrote a Facebook post that was wrong and completely out of character and the result was a badly written post…
Posted by Ten Walls on Monday, June 8, 2015
Well, goodbye Ten Walls
— Snack King Cole (@atrak) June 8, 2015
Well there goes Ten Walls career down the hole
— Dirty South (@dirtysouth) June 8, 2015
Very proud of the Internet for everyone’s swift Ten Walls response. No place in the world for that kind of thinking, especially in art.
— Goldroom (@goldroom) June 8, 2015
Hello SF, I no longer will be playing with Ten Walls on July 31st. I will have an update on that date soon. Thanks
— Jimmy Edgar (@jimmyedgar) June 8, 2015
Well, Ten Walls turned out to be vile. I’m curious how low of a person you have to be to stop being booked completely.
— Ambivalent (@ambivalent) June 7, 2015
iTunes > search > ten walls > select all > delete
— Lane 8 (@Lane8music) June 7, 2015
Sorry I said some really disgusting things about gay people, I apologise as it might affect my record sales. Yours. Ten Walls.
— Midland (@midlandsound) June 7, 2015