Swedish govt investigates man-free Statement festival

Statement, which has raised $60,000 in Kickstarter funding, is in the crosshairs of the Equality Ombudsman for barring men from attending

Frida Hyvönen is part of the all-female Statement line-up © Elin Berge

Sweden’s Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen, DO) has contacted organisers of the new Statement festival as part of an investigation into whether the event violates the Discrimination Act by prohibiting men from attending.

Billed as “the world’s first major music festival for women, non-binary and transgender [people] only”, Statement – set to take place in Gothenburg on 31 August and 1 September 2018 – was conceived by comedienne Emma Knyckare as a “safe space” for female music fans, after several Swedish festivals were hit by reports of sexual assaults. (The most prominent, Bråvalla, was cancelled as a direct result, with promoter FKP Scorpio blaming “some men” who “cannot behave”.)

Knyckare raised SEK 533,120 (US$60,395) on Kickstarter to fund the festival, whose line-up will also be “completely free from cis men”…

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