Swedish women-only music festival found guilty of discrimination

The Statement festival was found to be in breach of gender discrimination law but will not be penalised

Laura Snapes
Wed 19 Dec 2018 11.32 GMT

A Swedish event billed as “the world’s first major music festival for women, non-binary and transgender only” has been found in breach by Sweden’s discrimination ombudsman (DO).

The inaugural Statement festival was held in Gothenburg in August following a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised 533,120SEK (£46,555). The DO opened an investigation into the festival in July.

A new DO ruling said that although festival organisers did not enforce the “man-free” rule, since “no differentiation based on sex was made between visitors at entry”, the statements the company issued prior to the event “discouraged a certain group from attending the event”, breaching a law banning gender discrimination.

The DO found that nobody suffered damage from the festival’s restrictions and no penalties will be imposed.

The organisers of Statement responded on Facebook: “It’s sad that what 5,000 women, non-binaries and transgender experienced as a life-changing festival made a few cis men lose it completely. The success of the Statement festival shows that is exactly what we need and the DO’s verdict doesn’t change this fact. Otherwise, we have no comments. We are busy changing the world.”

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