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I Killed The Prom Queen's Michael Crafter has issued a statement after the band were removed from the UNIFY 2019 line-up on Friday.
Following the line-up reveal on Thursday, the festival was called out for the lack of female artists announced on the 2019 bill, as well as the recruitment of I Killed The Prom Queen, in which Crafter was to re-join the band for an exclusive one-off performance.
A string of offensive comments published online by Crafter two years ago resurfaced following the line-up announce including one post which read: "End of the day a festival is about getting cunts to shows… I'm sure there's enough girls get [sic] finger banged in the tents to be happy enough about the festival".
Taking to Facebook on Sunday, Crafter addressed the band's expulsion from UNIFY 2019.
"Iktpq was removed from the festival for my past comments and I think being held to better standards is a good thing," Crafter wrote.
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The band's former frontman also mentioned the Broken Glass Online forum (existed from 2005-2009) which he was a moderator for, writing, "What started as something FOR the music scene ended up being a toxic mess of bullying, nudity and online shaming".
"I’ve seen a lot of people come out and support me over the last few days but I ask that you stop. What I was apart of is indefensible and I don’t want BGO to create more drama for people in 2018."
The post concludes, "Talking about past issues, building bridges and aiming to positively learn and grow from this experience and step forward as a better person is something I hope to do from all of this.
"While it's been challenging, I'm taking it as a learning experience to reflect on my attitudes, the language I've used in the past, and how I want to encourage other men in the scene to reflect on our culture and how we can all work to make it better."
Read the full post below.
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