The Correlation Between Music Festival Genres and Female Sexual Assault

Music festivals are communal events for people of all different backgrounds to gather and listen to music performances. Music festivals occur on small and large scales all across the world. While they can certainly be considered exciting and memorable events for some, others leave with traumatizing memories from being victims of sexual violence on festival grounds. Female sexual assault, while not always reported, runs rampant on festival grounds. Using a qualitative quantitative correlational research method, this study aims to answer the question: what is the correlation between music festival genres and female sexual assault? 4 music festivals - Coachella, Stagecoach, Rolling Loud, and Rock Fest - were examined to determine the number of female sexual assaults that occurred there between 2015 to 2019, and the demeaning language conveyed through the song lyrics. Coachella and Rock Fest showed a positive correlation between the number of female sexual assaults and the music festival genres, while Rolling Loud and Stagecoach showed a negative correlation. Music festivals are certainly not safe havens, however, society can work towards crafting safety measures that allow women to feel more reassured at these events. This study works to reaffirm the correlation between music festival genres and female sexual assault and also paves the way for new connections to be established regarding the lack of correlation between the two factors. This negative correlation suggests there may be other environmental factors contributing to female sexual assault, not just the genre of a music festival.