Mumford and Sons just took an amazing stand against sexual violence at music festivals
Mumford and Sons is known for headlining festivals and drawing hundreds of thousands of fans to see their legendary folk rock performances. These experiences are usually positive for most everyone involved, but at a recent festival in Sweden, things took a really dark turn.
During the three-day Bravalla festival in Norkopping, Sweden, five women were raped, and 12 others were sexually assaulted. Mumford and Sons were performers at the festival and were disgusted when they learned of the epidemic of assaults. As NME reported, they turned to Facebook to speak out against the sexual violence and vowed not to return to Bravalla until better security measures were taken.
Groping and sexual assaults have been a huge issue at music festivals around the world, but the problem has been so prominent in Sweden that anti-groping campaign bracelets were handed out at the start of festival season. The bracelets clearly didn’t make an impact in combating the rape culture that’s become “the new normal” at so many of these events. In fact, another Swedish festival experienced a similar wave of assaults on the same weekend as Bravalla.
It’s horrifying to see these kinds of assaults occur but we’re glad to see Mumford and Sons using their platform to draw attention to the issue and force event promoters to take notice. We hope other major festival acts follow suit in demanding a safe environment for all music lovers.