Canadian Music Festival Cancelled Following Promoter’s Anti-Kesha Facebook Post

Canadian music festival Hi-Fi Musical Adventure has come tumbling down after one of the co-founders, Anthony Dell’Orso, made some truly appalling remarks about pop singer Kesha in regards to her recent legal battle with Sony and Dr. Luke, before going on to harass two female musicians online. The festival was set to take place in just under two weeks from now. 60 bands and five venues were set to participate, but the entire event has since come undone with acts cancelling their appearances and venues backing out.

It is reported that Dell’Orso posted the following status to his personal page: “Fuck Kesha. Talentless hack with a penchant for drama.”

Because calling out abuse and feeling unsafe in your place of work is being dramatic, apparently. Also, Kesha is anything but talentless.

The post was shared and Dell’Orso was named and shamed by Desiree Das Gupta, vocalist in Toronto band Kaleidoscope Horse, to a secret Facebook group for females in the Toronto music scene. Upon finding out that his since-deleted post had been shared, Dell’Orso sent messages to Das Gupta and another musician, drummer Jocelyn Conway, who had removed him from her Facebook page after learning of his comments.

Chartattack reports that Dell’Orso accused Das Gupta of slander and sent messages to Conway (who had at that point repeatedly asked him to cease communication with her) including a Hillary Clinton reference, and a link to an article about Kesha’s 2011 statement, reportedly published under threats to her and her family, that producer Dr. Luke never drugged and raped her.

Speaking to Chartattack, Das Gupta said that she is trying to make career choices which reflect her values, including who she associates with and supports. “I shared it because I didn’t know a lot about the guy, I wanted to hear from other women if they thought it was an inappropriate comment and was hoping maybe someone would redeem him, really.”

The first band to publicly comment on the issue, Toronto act Specifics, posted a lengthy statement to their Facebook page addressing the issue and explaining that they would no longer be performing as part of the festival.

Dell’Orso’s business partner Amanda Langton was left to pick up the pieces following the veritable shitstorm he created, thus cancelling the whole event.

Image: Digital Spy