Swedish music festival might have held its last edition as producers the show cancelled the upcoming edition in 2018 over sexual assault cases reported at this year event. Bravalla Festival which has been hailed as the biggest music festival in Europe played host to stars from around the world but as Swedish police release states, the festival was also home to 11 police reports of sexual assault.
This year event which was headlined by American rock band The Killers, DJ duo The Chainsmokers, and Alesso, the Swedish House DJ. The show was said to be the location of a rape incident as reports have it that someone was raped during the performance of Håkan Hellström right in the middle of the show
FKP Scorpio, who is the organisers of the show, claimed that though they have tried their best to create a safe environment for the fans some people couldn’t behave. The promoters were also quoted as saying “Words cannot describe how incredibly sad we are about this, and we most seriously regret and condemn this”. This news does not do them any favours in the financial department as the promotion company which describes itself as the largest festival organisers in Europe is said to be in financial trouble with a loss of $9 million from 2016 alone.
Moreover, this is not the first time that such reports would emanate from the festival. In 2016, the Swedish police had reported that five cases of rape and 12 sexual assault incidents had emanated from the festival. Though, these reports were not peculiar to the show alone that time around as there were also 30 cases of sexual assault reported from festival in the same weekend. The rate of sexual assault at the time was alarming to different artist that attended the show with British band Mumford and Sons announcing that they would be boycotting the show until they get better assurances from the police.
Whether or not these reoccurring incidents are a problem associated to music festivals alone or a Swedish problem altogether is not clear. What is obvious is the fact that it paints the music culture in the country in a negative light.