Dozens of Sexual Assaults Reported at Swedish Music Festivals

This past weekend, dozens of sexual assaults were alleged to have taken place at two Swedish music festival. As previously reported, at Putte i Parken, a festival in Karlstad, multiple cases of sexual assault on women and girls aged 12-20 were reported, according to the Associated Press. (The number of cases, initially reported as 27, has since risen to 32.) And at Norrköping’s Bravalla festival, there were also five reports of rape and “more than a dozen,” of sexual assault, the Associated Press reports.

This morning, Bravalla headliners Mumford & Sons spoke out about the attacks in a Facebook post. “We're appalled to hear what happened at the Bravalla Festival last weekend,” the band wrote. “Festivals are a celebration of music and people, a place to let go and feel safe doing so. We're gutted by these hideous reports.” They added that they wouldn’t play the festival again until the organizers “combat what appears to be a disgustingly high rate of reported sexual violence.” 

Swedish police are yet to detain the men suspected of the Putte i Parken assaults, according to the AP.

The reports come a few months after Swedish police were accused of covering up a series of similar attacks at a 2015 festival, the AP reports.

via Jazz Monroe