Mumford and Sons boycott Swedish music festival after mass sexual assault

Seventeen sexual assaults including five alleged rapes were reported at Bravalla last weekend

Marcus Mumford, frontman of Mumford and Sons, is outraged by the reports of sexual assaults (Getty Images)

Mumford and Sons have announced that they will be boycotting Sweden’s biggest music festival after a mass sexual assault against female crowd members last weekend.

Five alleged rapes and twelve sexual assaults were reported to police at the Bravalla festival in Norkopping, where the folk rock band was playing alongside the likes of Bastille, The 1975, Wiz Khalifa and Biffy Clyro.

“We’re appalled to hear what happened at the Bravalla Festival last weekend. Festivals are a celebration of music and people, a place to let go and feel safe doing so,” the group wrote on their Facebook page. “We’re gutted by these hideous reports. We won’t play at this festival again until we’ve had assurances from the police and organisers that they’re doing something to combat what appears to be a disgustingly high rate of reported sexual violence.”

Swedish pop singer Zara Larsson, who also performed at Bravalla, tweeted her outrage at the attacks. “You deserve to burn in hell,” she wrote in a series of posts targeted at the perpetrators. “Damn you for making girls feel insecure when they go to a festival. Hate hate hate.”

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has described the attacks as “totally unacceptable” and vowed to tighten laws on sexual assault after a further 32 cases of sexual assault against women were reported at the country’s Putte I Parken festival between 30 June and 2 July.

Seven men have so far been identified for questioning but so far no arrests have been made.

Elsewhere, three sexual assaults were reported at the UK’s Glastonbury festival in June while five cases were reported at Denmark’s Roskilde festival last week.