A Swedish music festival which banned male attendees has been found in breach of Sweden’s Discrimination Ombudsman.
Statement Festival billed itself as “the world’s first major music festival for women, non-binary and transgender only”.
The Gothenburg event, which was held in August, did not put any procedures in place to stop men from purchasing tickets, but it was made clear that they were not welcome to attend.
Reportedly, male members of band’s crews were placed in a “man pen” located backstage.
The ruling from Sweden’s Discrimination Ombudsman (DO) said that it was a violation of anti-discrimination laws to run an event described as “male-free”.
It was also found that nobody suffered damage as a result of the festival, and as a result, the organisers will face no penalties.
Statement Festival responded to the verdict in a Facebook post: “It’s sad that what 5,000 women, non-binaries and transgender experienced as a life-changing festival, made a few cis-men lose it completely.
“The success of the Statement festival shows that is exactly what we need, and the DO’s verdict doesn’t change this fact. Otherwise, we have no comments. We are busy changing the world.”
The festival was born in response to the alarming number of sexual assault offences that took place at Swedish festival Bravalla the previous year.
Photo by Laerke Posselt
