(PCM) People in Sweden were incredibly disappointed when the country’s largest music festival Bravalla was cancelled unexpectedly. That is when Swedish comedian Emma Kynckare came up with the idea of hosting a “man-free” music festival planned for the summer of 2018.
Some might feel that the idea is vaguely reminiscent of days of Sarah McLachlan’s Lilith Faire, however, Lilith Faire celebrated female empowerment, but did not specifically state that men were not allowed to attend. Concert safely, especially when it comes to women, is a huge issue in Sweden where there have been over 40 cases of reported sexual assault taking place at these types of events. The authorities report that 12 of those cases were reported at Bravalla, with 4 rapes and 23 sexual assault reports coming in from this year’s festival. Due to the assault reports the country decided to cancel the festival completely in 2018 citing safety concerns.
Kynckare tweeted saying “What do you think about putting together a really cool festival where only non-men are welcome”? Her tweet received an overwhelming response and Kynckare decided to actually move forward with the plan.
She followed up her tweet saying “In the coming days I’ll bring together a solid group of talented organizers and project leaders to form the festival organizers, then you’ll hear from everyone again when it’s time to move forward.”
We definitely expect to hear some backlash about this decision, as many will feel it is being prejudice against men or that all should be punished for the actions of some. Kynckare’s reaction to any backlash is for men to just deal with it, as it seems to be okay to discriminate against women all the time, so it should be okay to just shut men out for three days.