Council Urges Glastonbury to Improve Crowd Control for 2023 Festival
Mendip District Council has urged for better crowd control at Glastonbury Festivalâs 2023 event during a meeting with the scrutiny board on Tuesday, November 22. Read more
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Glastonbury could be asked to Cut Capacity amidst Combat Against Illegal Drug Usage
Glastonbury Festival could be asked to lower its capacity rates in a bid to combat illegal drug use at the annual event, as local councillors and police look to review its current license. Read more
Global Vibe Radio 326 Feat. John Monkman (Beesemyer Music)
John Monkman shares his mix that was recorded live from Glastonbury 2022. As an exhilarating live performer, he is always tasked with the goal of bringing his vast array of captivating musical productions to life in a thrilling presentation of sound and emotion.
High Levels Of MDMA & Cocaine In Glastonbury’s Water Impacting Wild Life
Researchers have found high levels of MDMA in Glastonbury’s water and are studying its effect on the local wildlife. Studies are showing high levels of drug contamination in the river that runs through the site of the Glastonbury Festival. Dan Aberg, a Masters’s student at the School of Natural Sciences at Bangor University, and Dr. Daniel Chaplin from the Centre for Environmental Biotechnology (CEB) measured levels of drugs found in the Whitelake River before, during, and after Glastonbury Festival 2019.
Opinion: Why A Women-Only Music Festival Does Nothing Long-Term
It’s Domestic Violence Awareness month and while the media’s focus has been on sexual predator and recognized American film producer, Harvey Weinstein, people on Facebook and Twitter have been sharing personal sexual assault stories with the hashtag #MeToo.
Unfortunately, the festival culture has contributed to this problem. In 2015, a Coachella festival attendee proudly wore an âEat, Sleep, Rape, Repeatâ shirt while he posed with a grin and the peace sign. In 2017, one rape was reported at Glastonbury festival in the UK. The BrĂ„valla Festival in Sweden reported four rapes and 23 sexual assaults over the course of the four-day event and was consequently canceled for 2018. These are a few of the recurring tragedies in our community.
To confront what happened at BrÄvalla Festival, a Swedish comedian and radio host, Emma Knyckare, proposed an idea on Twitter:
Vad tror ni om att vi styr ihop en asfet festival dit bara icke mÀn Àr vÀlkomna som vi kör tills ALLA mÀn har lÀrt sig hur en beter sig?
â Emma Knyckare (@Knyckare) July 2, 2017
“What do you think about putting together a really cool festival where only non-men are welcome that we’ll run until ALL men have learned how to behave themselves?”
The idea spread like wildfire and Knyckare created a Kickstarter to crowdfund Statement Festival, “the worldâs most awesome music festival – without cis-men” where her goal is to, â…create a safe space for the people who want to attend a festival without feeling scared for their personal safety.â The fund surpassed its goal of 500,000 Swedish Krona, which is approximately $61,630, by 3,300 people who funded the campaign.
Regrettably, this voluntary gender segregation implies that men and women cannot coexist peacefully. It reminds me of the commonplace gender segregation that occurs in places like India and the Middle East.
Besides creating a safe space during the festival, the rash decision to bar cis-men doesnât address the root of the problem: sexual assault education.
According to a 2013 report by the United Nations, rapes and sexual assaults are a direct result of sexual entitlement, seeking of entertainment (who knew) and as a punishment. These are the areas where men need to be educated.
Take the hashtag #MeToo. It was extremely powerful for men to see the amount of sexual harassment and assault stories that it caused several of themâin my very own communityâto self-analyze and really look at what is happening around them.
Men do not need to be told that the only way women can be kept safe is through segregation. They need to understand the consequences of their actions from an early age; they need to be taught about consent by their guardians, parents, teachers, and peers. They need to be taught the importance of basic human decency, respect, and love. And most importantly, they should lead by example to influence their male counterparts.
While Statement Festival may solve the assault issue in the short-term, it wonât help solve anything long-term. It reinforces the ideas that men and women cannot live in unison, and that all men are sexual offenders, even if they arenât. It does not present innocent men the opportunity to teach their male counterparts how to respect women and how to be conscious of their actions. After all, donât we want to be as inclusive as we aim to be included and treated fairly?
