Sweden’s discrimination ombudsman (DO) opened an investigation into the festival in July.
Statement festival, which took place in Gothenburg in August and is billed as “the world’s first major music festival for women, non-binary and transgender only”, has been found guilty of gender discrimination by by Sweden’s discrimination ombudsman (DO), reports The Guardian.
The DO ruling states that, although“no differentiation based on sex was made between visitors at entry” to the festival, Statement’s comments prior to the event “discouraged a certain group from attending”, therefore breaching a law banning gender discrimination. Ultimately, the DO found that nobody suffered damage from these restrictions and the festival will not be penalised.
The organisers of Statement responded to the ruling 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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