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Festival-goers told to step in if they spot sexual harassment, as almost half young women attacked

Revellers arrive at the Glastonbury festival - Paul Grover for the Telegraph
Revellers arrive at the Glastonbury festival - Paul Grover for the Telegraph

Festival goers have been told to step in if they spot sexual harassment, as new figures show almost half of young women have been attacked.

One in five British festival goers have experienced sexual assault or harassment at an event, according to new research, with 43pc of women under the age of 40 experiencing unwanted attention.

The figures, believed to be the first of their kind, should be a wake-up call for the industry, campaigners said, after a poll showed 22pc of all Britons who have been to a festival faced some kind of unwanted sexual behaviour, rising to almost one in three of all women.

Jen Calleja, a co-director of the Good Night Out Campaign, called the research "shocking but not surprising", saying it "helps prove what we already know through anecdotal evidence.

Parklife
Festival-goers at Parklife, Manchester, 2018.

"The idea we want to put forward is that harassment is everybody's problem, it's not just the person who is being assaulted," added Ms Calleja.

Eleven per cent of women had experienced sexual assault while they were conscious, compared with three per cent of men, and four per cent of women said they were sexually assaulted while unconscious or asleep, compared with two per cent of men.

However, only two per cent of festival goers who were assaulted or harassed reported the incident to the police, according to the figures, suggesting the issue is significantly under-reported.

In 70pc of cases the perpetrator was a stranger, the YouGov poll of 1,888 festival goers for the Press Association also found.

Bestival - Credit: Bestival
Bestival Credit: Bestival

The most common forms of unwanted sexual behaviour experienced by respondents were unwelcome and forceful dancing and sexualised verbal harassment.

Paul Reed, chief executive of the Association of Independent Festivals, said festivals "have a duty to make their events as safe and secure and enjoyable" as possible,   and  encouraged festival goers to report incidents if they witness them.

“If people don't intervene, then this behaviour becomes normalised,” he said.

Only 1pc of women surveyed reported sexual assault or harassment to a member of festival staff, either before or after the event, compared with 19pc of men.

The Pyramid Stage, Glastonbury Festival - Credit: Getty Images
The Pyramid Stage, Glastonbury Festival Credit: Getty Images

Ms Calleja said: "We know that the vast amount of harassment and sexual assault is not reported and we know this comes down to stigma, fear of not being believed and a minimisation of what harassment is," she said.

February's Crime Survey statistics found one in five women had experienced some form of sexual assault since they turned 16.

Hundreds of thousands of people flock to UK festivals every year but organisers of some of the UK's biggest festivals - including Glastonbury, Creamfields and the Reading and Leeds festivals - declined to comment on the new figures.

Somerset Police recorded two incidents of sexual assault, two incidents of rape and one incident of indecent exposure at last year's Glastonbury Festival and some social media users reported instances of sexual assault at Manchester's Parklife festival this year, on June 9 and 10. Parklife also declined to comment.