Billy Kenny Dropped from Shambhala at Home After Sexual Assault Allegations Surface

by | Jul 14, 2020 | Culture, Stories | 0 comments

After a series of sexual assault and harassment allegations came to light, Billy Kenny has been removed from the lineup of Shambhala Music Festival‘s digital event, Shambhala at Home. The Leeds DJ and producer has written a statement in response.

On July 13th, three separate allegations involving Kenny shared by Alberta, Canada women made their rounds on Twitter. Two of them alleged that he sent them lewd text messages, one of whom offered up an apparent screen shot of their exchange and said she refused to go to his hotel with him after he said he wanted to put cigarettes out on her stomach. A third alleged that he grabbed her behind after tricking her into bending over to look for his USB.

Soon afterwards, Shambhala’s organizers announced that he had been removed from the lineup for their digital event. “We take any allegations of assault, whether it be physical, verbal or sexual, very seriously and we do not condone that behavior in any way,” read part of their statement.

In his Facebook post, Kenny addressed one of the alleged incidents without explicitly confirming or denying it. “For clarity, it is alleged that on June 23rd, 2017 at a show in Edmonton, I played a trick on a woman who was onstage during my performance, where I pretended to drop my USB stick and then grabbed her behind inappropriately,” he wrote. “In addition, this same woman posted text messages in which I allegedly use aggressive sexual language, and claims that I expressed desire to physically assault her and that I physically assaulted a female friend of hers at an afterparty.”

Kenny went on to say that he had been “out of control” at the time the incidents allegedly happened, writing that they did not reflect his present-day values. “I am firmly against any type of domestic abuse, sexual abuse or violence and I can’t imagine acting in the ways I have been accused of,” he wrote. “Therefore, I realize that it is overdue for me to take a stance against the abuse, sexual predation, violence, and ego-driven behaviors which exist in the music industry.”

In the ensuing comment thread, the woman who shared the alleged screen shot of his text messages condemned his response and said he mixed up the details of the incidents. “You have done this so many times you can’t even get your own story straight,” she said before clarifying that her encounter with him happened March 2nd, 2017. Yet another individual commented that he “punched a woman at an after party in Edmonton” in front of witnesses.

The allegations against Kenny follow a flurry of similar ones derailing the careers of other famous electronic musicians. After commercial EDM artists like Graves and Space Jesus were outed for problematic behavior, alleged incidents involving Bassnectar (real name Lorin Ashton) collected using an anonymous Instagram account led the DJ and producer to step down from his artist project and Be Interactive nonprofit.

Billy Kenny has not followed up on his initial statement at the time of writing. Selector has reached out to his team for additional comment and will update this piece with any response.

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