Ten Walls Comes Tumbling Down

Ten Walls, real name Marijus Adomaitis, has subsequently apologized for his FB rant and said, “I now need to take a break and have cancelled my upcoming shows.”

Who actually canceled the shows is open to question as Spain’s Sonar Festival put a post on Twitter that said: “Ten Walls will no longer be appearing at Sónar 2015 as his statements are at odds with the nature and ethos of the festival.”

Ten Walls’ original post had said: “One of my first gigs in Ireland, on my way to [my] hotel I saw a church with a fence decorated with hundreds of baby shoes. Naturally I wondered why? Unfortunately a priest’s lie for many years was uncovered when children were massively raped. Unfortunately the people of other breed continue to do it and everyone knows it but does nothing.”

The DJ has since backtracked on his views, which apparently referred to homosexuals as a “different breed,” but not until Sonar, Belgium’s Pukkelpop and the UK’s Creamfields had scratched him from their line-ups. On June 8 Creamfields posted an official statement saying the festival takes a “zero tolerance policy when it comes to hate of any kind,” and confirmed that Ten Walls wouldn’t be appearing.

“Whilst we respect freedom of speech, we find his defamatory and prejudiced comments about the gay community extremely offensive and feel that this is not in line with the spirit of Creamfields or an opinion that we support,” the statement added.

The DJ, whose single “Walking with Elephants” reached No. 6 in the UK charts, is also off the bill at Austria’s Urban Art Forms Festival. London-based CODA Agency has also dropped the act.

A spokeswoman said, “Coda Music Agency condemns all forms of discrimination based on race, religion or sexual orientation. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and to represent a hugely diverse roster of artists. We no longer represent Ten Walls.”