Sweden To Hold Man-Free Festival In Response To Alarming Sexual Violence Rates

Earlier this week, the organizers for Bråvalla announced that next year's festival would be cancelled in response to the alarming rates of rape and sexual assault at the festival this last weekend. In the announcement, the organizers lamented that "certain men... apparently cannot behave. It's a shame."

There were allegedly no less than four on-site rapes and 23 sexual assaults reported between last Thursday and Sunday, compared to last year's five rapes and 12 instances of sexual assault.

Several of the visiting musical acts were also revolted by the festival's high sexual violence rates, including Mumford & Sons, who called the event "hideous."

"Festivals are a celebration of music and people, a place to let go and feel safe doing so," they said in a Facebook post after last year's festival. "We’re gutted by these hideous reports. 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.”

On Sunday, Knyckare posted on Instagram promising that "Sweden's first man-free rock festival will see the light next summer."

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

The comedian is putting together a team of organizers and project leaders, recruiting them over her social media accounts. She promises to keep everyone updated when there are further developments.