The Culture of Sexual Violence at Festivals: Through the Eyes of Festival Attendees

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines sexual violence at festivals based on eleven interviews with people that have been to two popular festivals in Iceland, Eistnaflug, and Þjóðhátíð. The thesis seeks answers to three research questions; How are festivals characterized by festival attendees? How do festival attendees explain sexual violence at festivals? What preventive methods at festivals have festival attendees noticed, and what kind of prevention do they think would work? To be able to give concrete answers to those questions, the thesis relies upon the theoretical background of the carnival, liminality, collective effervescence, sexually violent effervescence, and social network theory. The thesis presents how the core characteristics of festivals are gendered, as women are not able to experience liminality within the carnival to the same extent as men. As well as how sexual violence is mainly directed toward women and how they have had to take their own precautions regarding preventive methods, as the methods that have been used have not shown excellent results.