Sweden Will Hold Women-Only Music Festival Following Reports Of Sexual Assault

A Swedish radio presenter and comedian confirmed via Instagram on Monday that she would be organizing a “man-free rock festival” next summer, following sexual assault reports at Sweden’s largest music festival.

Bråvalla, Sweden’s largest music festival, was canceled in 2018 on Sunday after reports of rape and sexual assault in 2017. Local police said they received four rape and 23 sexual assault reports during the festival weekend, which took place in the southeastern district of Östergötland from June 28 to July 1.

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“Certain men apparently cannot behave. It’s a shame. We have therefore decided to cancel Bråvalla 2018,” the festival’s organizers said to Agence France-Presse.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told daily newspaper Expressen that the acts were "so disgusting. These are obnoxious acts by deplorable men."

“This must stop,” he added.

After the news was announced, Swedish radio presenter and comedian Emma Knyckare posted on Twitter: “What do you think about putting together a really cool festival where only non-men are welcome, there we’ll run until ALL men have learned how to behave themselves?”

Knyckare received an outpouring of online support.

“Sweden’s first man-free rock festival will see the light next summer,” she wrote on Instagram Monday. “In the coming days I’ll bring together a solid group of talented organizers and project leaders to form the festival organizers, then you’ll hear from everyone again when it’s time to move forward.”

Her next few posts included updates to the festival as well as thanks to those who showed interest and support in the endeavor.

Bråvalla and other music festivals have had a sexual assault problem in the past few years. At Bråvalla 2016, police handed out bracelets with the words “Don’t Grope” on them. However, by the end of the weekend-long festival, police investigated five rapes and more than a dozen sexual assaults.

After the sexual assaults were revealed, the American band Mumford and Sons said they would not play Bråvalla until they had “assurances from the police and organizers that they’re doing something to combat what appears to be a disgustingly high rate of reported sexual violence.”

“We’re appalled to hear what happened. Festivals are a celebration of music and people, a place to let go and feel safe doing so,” the band wrote on Facebook. “We’re gutted by these hideous reports.”

Despite the amount of sexual assaults and rapes reported from Bråvalla 2016, the festival was still held in 2017 with performances from The Killers and DJ Martin Garrix, among others. Ticket sales were lower than in 2016 — about 45,000 tickets were sold compared to 52,000 in 2016.

“It stopped being about music and became almost completely about crime and violence,” said Folkert Koopmans, chief executive of FKP Scorpio, the German owner of Bråvalla.

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Knyckare spoke to Sweden’s Aftonbladet, responding to claims that a man-free music festival was discriminatory.

“Since it seems to be okay to discriminate against women all the time, maybe it’s okay to shut out men for three days?” she said. “I would not exactly call it an abuse not to come to the festival.”