In July, Swedish comedian Emma Knyckare proposed the idea of a man-free music festival after the cancellation of an event following a slew of sexual assault reports and at least four allegations of rape. Now, her concert has a name.
Knyckare has put together a 22-person strong team to organize ‘Statement Festival,’ raising funds for the female-only festival on Kickstarter. All going well, the proposed 10,000 capacity event, will take place over two days next summer.
“The name has been decided as well as that it will be a two-day festival next summer, and we're going to try to have 100 percent women working and playing. We'll gradually release news on things like the location and artists via Kickstarter,” Knyckare told the Local.
“We'll soon have half the money we need. It's amazing that so many want to take part and make sure this happens,” she added.
Knyckare’s initial tweet calling for the festival received a mixed response, and she was skeptical it would ever see the light of day. She was buoyed, however, by multiple offers of help and support.
“When I wrote the tweet I hadn't thought about it being followed through, but when thousands of people wrote 'please, make it happen' and the media started to call and ask a lot about the festival, I felt like 'yes, we'll do it for real dammit'. It felt important when so many people wanted it,” she said.
In July, Sweden’s annual Bravalla music festival was called off following reports of four cases of rape and some 22 counts of molestation.
Later that month, four teenage girls reported being raped at a festival in the town of Emmaboda while eleven other women reportedly experienced sexual abuse at the event.