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Caught in a mosh pit meme1/17/2024 ![]() That night I left the mosh pit promising I’d never put myself in that situation again. And as hard as I’ve fought in my mind about this, I now realise that I wasn’t the perpetrator, he was and what he did was wrong. It wouldn’t matter what I was wearing, how I was dancing, or how much I’d had to drink. How can you be responsible for a guy nearly twice your height and weight choosing to overpower you? You can’t. If you’ve been drinking, you apparently become responsible for anything that happens to you. It shouldn’t be an issue, but apparently it is. We don't want to be told to move to the back, to stop going to rock shows in general, to not accidentally lose our friends ever again, so we don't tell anyone. We know it’s not right, that something is definitely wrong, but it’s easier to stay quiet. You make sense to every person this has happened to which is why the guilt lands on our shoulders. Surely, you could have escaped? Well, you're right. Surely, someone would have noticed and helped you. Surely, it's impossible to get assaulted in such a public place. I was and still am worried that people won't take me seriously. It’s always seemed less painful to not tell anyone and just try and forget. I have waited so long to open up about this. Which, as you could imagine, was heartbreaking to come to terms with as suddenly, the safe haven to lose my mind in was a dangerous place with painful memories. I learnt quickly during that time that there are a fraction of people attending live music shows that aren’t there to see the band. I loved the fact that you and all your friends would often lose each other and come back at the end of the night with hilarious stories of people you’ve met or shoulders you’ve been on.īut I stopped loving mosh pits to an extent when I was sexually assaulted in one nearly two years ago. I used to thrive in the violence of the front row and always came out smiling even when I broke my nose that one time. Of slamming bodies against bodies, jumping, screaming lyrics with strangers and spilled beer. Over my years as a live music addict, I know as well as you do that there is nothing better than the natural movement of the mosh-pit. We don’t hear about the guilt and shame a lot of punters carry out with their dead phone batteries and sunburnt skin and how these feelings don’t leave for weeks and months and years. We hear so much about substance abuse and drunken violence in relation to music festivals but we rarely hear about the people leaving mosh pits with jarring memories that will haunt them whenever they hear that band again. It happens so often that bands now, like The Smith Street Band, High Tension, Modern Baseball, Camp Cope and more are speaking out, calling for an absolute zero tolerance of this behaviour at their shows and are encouraging girls to go to the front. In mosh pits that you’ve danced in, at festivals you’ve had the time of your life at. You may be surprised to hear of how often this actually happens at gigs in Australia. ![]() Could you think of anything worse than being groped and assaulted while watching one of your favourite bands play? You probably think those numbers are crazy, and rightly so. Recently, in Sweden, there were over 40 reports of sexual assault and groping at two festivals in one weekend. Sexual assault in mosh pits at gigs and festivals is occurring at an astounding rate.
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