Launceston woman Selina Woodiwiss has seen the best and worst of music festivals.
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The 50-year-old felt the need to speak out about sexual assaults in public places this week, following revelations five women were seriously assaulted at last weekend’s Falls Festival at Marion Bay.
One of the women was allegedly raped.
Police are investigating and have asked others to come forward.
Ms Woodiwiss wanted to be named and photographed to show victims of sexual assault at public place events that it’s time to say ‘enough is enough’.
She believes that it shouldn’t be the victims who feel shamed, but the perpetrators.
“I've been grabbed in the crotch. I've been grabbed on the boobs. I've had a guy grinding his d--- up into my a---,” Ms Woodiwiss said.
“(In a crowd) you can't move away. You attempt to, you attempt to tell them to back off and that sort of thing, but often it'll turn onto you, and often it'll attract this attention to yourself.
“There's this thing where you feel embarrassed, humiliated, shamed, which is something that obviously needs to change as well. It needs to be about the male - this behaviour is just not on.
Ms Woodiwiss has been attending festivals since the 1980s.
Her first was Rockceston about 35 years ago.
While Ms Woodiwiss was not sexually assaulted at Falls Festival last weekend, she was subjected to intimidating behaviour.
After telling a drunk man to leave her and her 11-year-old daughter alone, she said the man told her that he hoped she got “hit by a bus”.
But she’s heard of worse encounters.
At one event in Melbourne in the 1980s, Ms Woodiwiss said her friend was crowd-surfing and was digitally raped by a stranger in the crowd below her.
Sexual assault can take many forms, Ms Woodiwiss said.
“As far as anything sexual, it's mostly groping - a lot of groping,” she said.
“(And when you reject them) you'll hear anything from 'I'm just having a bit of fun', to 'where's your sense of humour?', 'Why are you so uptight?', 'You f------ s---'.”
Organisers of Falls Festival have also spoken out against the culture among some patrons at festivals.
In a statement on Facebook on Thursday, organisers wrote: “Like everyone else we are disgusted and angry that some people feel they can inappropriately touch others without their consent.
“We would like to see the conversation turn from telling our women and girls to be on guard and vigilant, to telling our boys and men to have some respect and stop taking these liberties.”
