Sweden's biggest music festival, Bravalla, has been cancelled for 2018 following numerous sexual assaults and rapes being reported at this year's festival.
Four rapes and 23 sexual assaults were reported to the police in the southeastern district of Östergötland, where the festival takes place annually. One woman said she was forced to have sex with a man after changing her mind, reported the Guardian.
The police have currently not laid any accusations on anyone as there are no suspects. Chief Police investigator, Martin Hedberg, said, “Many reports (of sexual assault) come after they’ve happened so there are weak descriptions (of the suspects) and nothing more to go on.”
Many reports of such sort were reported last year too, with the police recording 5 reports of rape. Past cases of sexual assault have been creating unrest amongst the public in Sweden and all over the world, with many organisers cancelling events for the safety of women.
BBC reported that Mumford and Sons demanded the guarantee of their female audience's safety in 2016. They said, "We won't play at this festival again until we've had assurances from the police and organisers that they're doing something to combat what appears to be a disgustingly high rate of reported sexual violence."
The police were accused of withholding information regarding the alleged sexual assaults at a summer festival in Stockholm in 2014 and 2015. Bravalla 2017 continued as planned and ended on Saturday with performances by The Killers, Prophets of Rage and Dutch DJ Martin Garrix.
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Prime Minister, Stefan Lofven, criticised the incidents that occurred over the weekend and called for stronger surveillance at festivals. Lofven told the Swedish daily Expressen in televised comments, “This is so disgusting. These are obnoxious acts by deplorable men, this must stop.” as Hindustan Times reported.
FKP Scorpio, the German owner of the Bravalla Festival, has blamed last year’s incidents on a drop in ticket sales.
The festival's ticket sales dropped from 52,000 that were sold last year to 45,000 tickets that were sold this year. The German owner of the festival, FKP Scorpio have blamed the events of the past year for this loss.
“It stopped being about music and became almost completely about crime and violence,” Folkert Koopmans, CEO of FKP Scorpio, told TT news agency on Monday. "It's a shame that some men couldn't behave properly and didn't think it was safe to put on another event." A press release on their website read, "Words cannot describe how incredibly sad we are about this, and we most seriously regret and condemn this."
Pic Credit: Pedestrian TV
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Jagriti is an intern with SheThePeople.TV
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