Published
Wed, Jun 20, 2018, 09:37
- The figure rises to more than two in five for females under 40.
One in five people who attend UK festivals is sexually harassed or assaulted, according to a survey by the market research and data analytics firm YouGov.
Of the 1,188 people who took part in the survey, 22 percent said they had been harassed or assaulted, with the percentage rising to 30 percent for female festivalgoers. Forty-three percent of people under 40 said they'd faced some kind of unwanted sexual behaviour, according to The Guardian. The most common type of incident was "unwelcome and forceful dancing."
The survey also found that only two percent of cases had been reported to the police. "We know that the vast amount of harassment and sexual assault is not reported and we know this comes down to stigma, fear of not being believed and a minimisation of what harassment is," said the co-director of the Good Night Out initiative Jen Calleja. She also said she found the survey "shocking but not surprising."
Tracey Wise, the founder of Safe Gigs For Women, was more positive about the findings. "We have struggled to find anyone with any definite statistics on this before now," she said. "It gives us something to show to festival organisers so we can say you need to take this on board."
In December of 2017, the AFEM (Association For Electronic Music) announced it was setting up a hotline for victims of sexual harassment in the electronic music industry. The number to call in the UK is 0800 030 5182.