“Shocking but not surprising” results of UK survey into sexual harassment and assault at festivals

The first major survey into sexual harassment and assault at UK festivals has come up with some startling statistics.

30% of women faced assault or harassment, with the figure rising to 43% of women under 40.

22% of UK patrons complained of complained of unwanted sexual behaviour. The most common forms of this were forceful and unwanted dancing, and sexual comment.

70% of any of this behaviour was perpetrated by a stranger.

Only 1% of women reported these incidents to staff, while the figure was 19% for men.

The survey, which was undertaken by YouGov and commissioned by the Press Association, spoke to 1,188 festival patrons.

Jen Calleja, a co-director of the Good Night Out Campaign, called the research “shocking but not surprising”, saying it “helps prove what we already know through anecdotal evidence.

“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.”

Groups such as Good Night Out, Care2 and Safe Gigs For Women will use the statistics to pressure more festivals to work at eradicating the problem or at least identifying clearer to patrons which of their staffers were on hand to help.

Earlier this year, 25 members of the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) launched a campaign called Safer Spaces.

Its three messages were (1) zero tolerance to sexual assault; (2) hands off unless consent; and (3) don’t be a bystander.

It included training their staff to handle incidents and complaints and, with the help of rape crisis centres, on how to comfort victims.

Responding to the newly-released figures, AIF chief executive Paul Reed called on more festivals to battle the behaviour and also called for patrons to report behaviour if they were victims or witnesses.

“People shouldn’t feel that they need to tolerate the type of behaviour [at festivals] that they wouldn’t tolerate in the street.”

He again emphasised the importance of bystander intervention.

“If people don’t intervene, then this behaviour becomes normalised,” he said.