Sexual assault at Reading and Leeds Festivals

[Pleasehelpme2000]

Please help.
Following a sexual assault at Reading Festival last year, I have been trying to get answers out of Festival Republic and Reading Council. They stalled me for many months - in the end to see their data on sexual assaults I had to make Freedom of Information requests to Thames Valley Police and West Yorkshire Police.
It turns out that there are 4 rapes reported every year at Leeds Festival (3 in 2023). There is also a 'penetration of women aged 13 and above' most years, plus sexual assaults (7 last year). In Reading Festival there were 22 sexual assaults last year - they are making me do more FOI requests if I want to understand the details. I think there are intersectional issues, and if I want that information, I am also being asked to do more FOIs.
At Leeds and Reading Festival since 2018 there have been zero convictions for any sexual assaults. In Leeds there have not even been any prosecutions! At Reading there is one prosecution per year.
I have met with Festival Republic and the Reading 'Public Protection' officer, I have made formal complaints to both police forces and to both councils. Leeds Council said I could watch the Licensing committee meeting, after which I emailed everyone of the councillors with my concern. No one has got back to me. Reading Council have passed my complaint about the Festival and the Public Protection Officer - to the Public Protection Officer! - and said he will get back to me after the festival. The Thames Valley Police Chief Inspector replied to say she will investigate and get back to me after the festival.
The CCTV quality they use is no good - Festival Republic have admitted it is for crowd flow, not identification. I have consulted an industry expert. The quality is not good enough to identify assailants. Festival Republic say they won't improve it unless the Police demand it.

Please help me bring attention to these appalling sexual assault statistics and please ask the Festival, the councils and police forces to improve the CCTV quality.
With 4 out of 5 women not reporting sexual assault, these figures are likely to be FAR HIGHER.
If 4 men had been raped every year at Leeds Festival, wouldn't the council have created a Men and Boys Taskforce years ago for their SAG and Licensing Teams? These figures have been stable since 2019, and no such team exists - that's how normalised they are trying to make us to violence against women and girls.
Please Help.
God forbid anyone gets sexually assaulted at these festivals this year, but the likelihood is that many will. Please help people get access to justice when it happens.

Full FOI reports here:

LEEDS FESTIVAL 2019
RAPE OF WOMAN 16 YEARS OF AGE OR OVER - 4
HARASSMENT PUT IN FEAR OF VIOLENCE - 1
HARASSMENT WITHOUT VIOLENCE - 1
SEXUAL ASSAULT ON A FEMALE - 3

2021
ASSAULT A WOMAN 13 OR OVER BY PENETRATION WITH PART OF BODY/A THING - 1
RAPE A WOMAN 16 YEARS OF AGE OR OVER - 4
SEXUAL ASSAULT ON A FEMALE - 2
ADMINISTER SUBSTANCE WITH INTENT TO STUPEFY/OVERPOWER TO ALLOW SEXUAL ACTIVITY - 1

2022
ASSAULT A WOMAN 13 OR OVER BY PENETRATION WITH PART OF BODY/A THING - 2
RAPE A WOMAN 16 YEARS OF AGE OR OVER - 4
SEXUAL ASSAULT ON A FEMALE - 9
ADMINISTER SUBSTANCE WITH INTENT TO STUPEFY/OVERPOWER TO ALLOW SEXUAL ACTIVITY - 1

2023
ASSAULT A WOMAN 13 OR OVER BY PENETRATION WITH PART OF BODY/A THING - 1
RAPE A WOMAN 16 YEARS OF AGE OR OVER - 3
SEXUAL ASSAULT ON A FEMALE - 6
SEXUAL ASSAULT ON A MALE - 1
ADMINISTER SUBSTANCE WITH INTENT TO STUPEFY/OVERPOWER TO ALLOW SEXUAL ACTIVITY - 1

LEEDS FESTIVAL 2019-2023
NUMBER OF PROSECUTIONS - 0
NUMBER OF CONVICTIONS - 0

READING FESTIVAL 2023
SEXUAL ASSAULTS REPORTED TO THE POLICE 22

READING FESTIVAL 2022
SEXUAL ASSAULTS REPORTED TO THE POLICE 18

READING FESTIVAL 2021
SEXUAL ASSAULTS REPORTED TO THE POLICE 12

READING FESTIVAL 2021-2023
NUMBER OF PROSECUTIONS - 1 PER YEAR
NUMBER OF CONVICTIONS - 0

YABU

Each crime is an individual event, and related to the criminal perpetrator, not the venue it happened at.

Do you imagine these men are safe and law abiding in other venues?

And there are worse dangers at festivals, I am more concerned at the number of young people losing their lives to overdoses either at the festival or after woods, in relation to the festival

That's appalling.

I think it's appalling too

Oh this is interesting, thanks for commenting.

I am saying that there are specific conditions at festivals - alcohol, an atmosphere of 'festival freedom' where usual rules are relaxed, the design of festival spaces and the ease of assaults in large crowds, the ease of disappearance afterwards - and that these conditions make this space more dangerous for women and girls. I am also saying that these two festivals in particular are not set up to properly investigate sexual assault crimes when they happen.

There are undoubtedly horrific other crimes that happen at festivals. I hope that improving conditions for women and girls and interrogating their offer for people minoritised by race or disability, that the conditions will be improved for everyone.

Wow - I had no idea about this. I went many times when younger. Thanks for bringing this to our attention OP.

Thanks.
I think the numbers of sexual assault are horrifying and the lack of action from Festival Republic, the police and the councils is compounding the problems. They are refusing to make actions that will offer justice. They seem instead to tolerate these statistics, or even to admit that more actions are needed. This normalises the violence - and creates an atmosphere a culture where rape is normalised.

If there is anything that you can do to amplify these issues please do.

The venue is not to blame though. The perpetrators are too blame. And each crime will be investigated individually. It isn't an issue with the festival itself, or the police response to a festival.

Terrifyingly, these are only the reported events. How many are unreported?

Not sure what to make of this, obviously its awful.

A quick google tells me that there the rate of sexual assaults in the general population is around 2% of the population per annum. The equivalent (reported) rate for the festivals assuming 80,000 people go for three days is 2.25% so not much higher than in every day life?

I think with a big concentration of people and security etc you'd expect it to be lower maybe?

Honestly I'm surprised the numbers are not higher 🤷🏻‍♀️

Not saying it's right, just that if you'd asked me I would have thought there'd be many more.

These are only what is reported. It's terrible that there have been no convictions. The men know they can get away with it. The cctv needs to be improved for facial recognition. It's hardly a new technology. People get better images on their ring doorbells than some of the images shared by the police on their cctv.

‘Assault of a woman 13 or over’ has annoyed me. 13,14 and 15 are not women, they’re children 🤦🏻‍♀️

I’m sorry for what you’ve gone through OP. Everyone should be held accountable.

It's appalling. Referring to children as women is also appalling.
I can't believe some of the replies to this thread, it's actually really depressing.
Sorry it happened to you OP

Thanks OP for putting pressure on the festival organisers. I would be interested to know what, if anything, they have done to make the festivals safer. For example have the assaults happened in particular areas? Have they used lighting and laid out the festival to avoid hidden areas that could attract crime? If these assaults are mainly happening in private tents then there may not be much that can be done, but if they are happening in public areas then it is their responsibility to make it as safe as possible. Theres a lot of theory about safe design of public spaces .

@Pleasehelpme2000 Thanks for making that post. I'd never seen those numbers for Reading, but frankly I'm surprised they are that low (I understand most won't be reported). Even thought now I work in the legal area, way back in the 90s I worked in police force for 6 years.

You might find this read interesting to put your post in context.
“It's Like a Drive by Misogyny”: Sexual Violence at UK Music Festivals
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10778012221120443

Hi @mytuppennyworth
you say that this is all on the perpetrators.
my point is that this is also systemically enabled. The crime statistics show that there is an issue with the venue conditions and the police response. There is also a problem with the way the councils, as they are enabling the impunity to continue, by not adequately investigating, keeping the data over years or holding the festival accountable. None of the crimes have been prosecuted or have led to convictions - this is a systemic issue.

Thanks @BloodyAdultDC yes I think of this a lot. Lots of statistics say that 4 out of 5 women do not report.
I also think of the many people assaulted and they brush it off, normalise it or internalise it in some way.

Thanks OP. It might be useful for you to start a thread on the FWR boards.

Thank you very much for this @Ohnoshebetterdont I have been horrified too, without knowing what next step to take. The police should change this category immediately to child rape - perhaps then the outrage would come? I will add this to my complaint to West Yorkshire police. The very name of that category is enabling a deeply troubling normalisation of something heinous.

They don't bother because even if they did, and investigated, and got the rapist convicted, the judges would let the rapist off anyway.

Thank you @veritasverity
yes I will put this strongly in my complaint to West Yorkshire police

thank you also for bringing up the replies, I really appreciate it. You help me feel the shock of them.

Some of the replies have been upsetting and depressing eh. So good not to normalise this, thank you

Are you saying that 13 year old children are raped while alone at the festival? Are 13 year olds allowed in?

I live 2 minutes away from one of those venues and it sounds crazy to allow children alone there.

Hi @FixTheBone thanks for your response. It is really awful isn't it.

The guardian says that we are living in a national emergency for women and girls. This description feels right to me.

I guess this is what you are pointing to? That the national statistics are also appalling, perhaps also the prosecution and conviction rates nationally are in line with these festivals' statistics?

By contextualising the figures and stopping there, we can end up normalising them and stopping the outrage and action. The argument that - yes these festivals' figures are terrible, and so are the national figures, it's all awful - can easily lead to doom thinking, that there's nothing we can do about it.

However, you seem to be contextualising the figures in order to try to understand them and open up some wonder about what the responses can be. Like, yes this is awful, it's all awful, what can be done?

Your post makes me wonder - looking at these festival figures, is there a way in which these festivals are part of embedding the foundations of misogyny and violence against women and girls? If it starts very young with the sexism of our society, of gendered clothing, exoections, family practices etc, are these festivals - timed to take place just after exam results come out - are they part of setting up the systems in which men violate women and girls with impunity? These festivals are often characterised as 'rites of passage' - is this part of what their 'rites' are offering, then, part of setting up the system which then does not change for the national scene? I would argue that these festivals have special extra responsibilities for transforming their culture.

i have had to do further FOIs to ask for the intersectional details of the crimes, because the police refuse to have a decent collaborative conversation. The new FOIs should hopefully tell me the ages of the people abused and the abusers, among other things. If for instance, all the people who have been sexually assaulted are under 18, or under 20, what then? These festivals should be taking extra care of vulnerable teenagers, and the police and councils should be insisting their systems are robust, or should be shutting them down.

I am asking you to hold onto the outrage and horror and to use it to expose the failures of the systems sine organisations have set up. None of this should be happening.

sorry if I've read too much into your comment and wandering through thoughts. it was really helpful for me to think with your comments, thank you, hope you think so too

Leeds is an awful festival, I'd never seen anything like it at other festivals. People lighting fires, running over tents with people inside, slashing tents... really not nice environment.

All other festivals I've been to are amazing.