One in five British festival goers have experienced sexual assault or harassment at an event, new research shows.
The YouGov poll of 1,188 festival goers showed 22 per cent of those who had attended a festival in the UK faced some kind of unwanted sexual behaviour, rising to almost one in three women and 43 per cent of women aged under 40.
Campaigners say the figures are a wake-up call for the industry to start treating sexual violence as seriously as other crimes at festivals.
The most common unwanted sexual behaviours experienced by respondents were unwelcome and forceful dancing and sexualised verbal harassment.
Eleven per cent of women had experienced sexual assault while they were conscious, compared to three per cent of men, and four per cent of women said they were sexually assaulted while unconscious or asleep, compared to two per cent of men.
Only two per cent of festival goers who were assaulted or harassed reported the incident to police, according to the figures, suggesting the issue is significantly under-reported.
Safe Gigs For Women founder Tracey Wise said the statistics give campaigners something to show festival organisers as proof that more needs to be done.
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".
February's UK Crime Survey statistics found one in five women had experienced some form of sexual assault since they turned 16.
Association of Independent Festivals chief executive Paul Reed said festivals have a duty to make events as safe and secure as possible, but added there is also a responsibility on festival goers to report problems.
"If people don't intervene, then this behaviour becomes normalised," he said.
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.
The poll also revealed:
* Seventy per cent of those who experienced sexual assault or harassment at a festival said the perpetrator was a stranger.
* Just one per cent of women reported sexual assault or harassment to festival staff, while 19 per cent of men reported their experience to staff.
Australian Associated Press
