Music fan says she was groped, bullied at Osheaga

Event organizer refuses to refund ticket, saying sufficient security was present

A 22-year-old music fan who bought a ticket to the Osheaga festival just to see her favourite indie rock band perform says she was repeatedly groped, taunted, bullied and humiliated — and so unsettled by the experience that she fled the site before the performance started and took the métro home from Parc Jean-Drapeau to the South Shore.

“I had to go pick her up at the métro because she was really scared,” said her father, Kevin Rankin. “It was just an awful experience for her.”

His daughter had been to Osheaga several times in previous years, but never before alone; Florence and the Machine is her favourite band and none of her friends wanted to go. She arrived at the site around 6 p.m. on Aug. 5 to secure a prime spot for the concert later that evening and said that in the two hours she spent at Osheaga, she saw just one security guard — and that was before the harassment began.

The fan, who wishes to remain anonymous, was born female and uses feminine pronouns but identifies as non-binary.

“By looking at me, it is difficult to judge whether I am male or female and that is how I feel inside, too,” she explained.

Previously, she had dressed in “an extremely masculine way ” for Osheaga and always felt safe. That day she was dressed in a feminine way.

“I wanted to wear a nice dress and makeup,” she said.

She was trying to move back in the crush of thousands of people as fans of Post Malone, performing before Florence and the Machine, advanced.

“I had noticed a few people smirking at me,” she said, and then a group of young men “started groping me.”

They were with young women, and no one intervened to help her, she said.

One of the young men called her “tranny” — a slur, if an outdated one, she said — then grabbed her breasts. Other people “grabbed me all over the place.”

She said didn’t see anyone in security or, for that matter, in any capacity who might have been helpful. Rather than seek them out, she decided it would be safest to leave.

“I wasn’t looking for security because I just wanted to get out of there at that point,” she said.

Phil Vanden Brande, Evenko’s manager of media and public relations, described the festivalgoer’s experience as “absolutely unacceptable.

“Evenko is strongly against any and all of these behaviours and does not tolerate any of it taking place on its premises or anywhere else,” he said in an email.

“We are very sorry that this happened. For Evenko, the security and well-being of festivalgoers is its No. 1 priority, and it always will be,” he wrote. “We are very surprised and sorry that this person could not get help on our site.”

Vanden Brande said hundreds of security, first aid and other employees trained to help fans were on hand, including female safety officers known as Hirondelles, an initiative to help keep vulnerable concertgoers safe. Any of them could have helped her get to a safe zone.

“We will make sure to try to understand the circumstances, learn from this situation and keep improving our security measures to prevent such situations from recurring.”

The Hirondelles were established in 2017 following a study by the Conseil des Montréalaises that found more than the majority of young women and members of the LGBTQ+ community at outdoor events in Montreal reported having been harassed.

Rankin offered to try to help his daughter recoup the cost of the ticket by reaching out to Evenko. The $122 she spent is “a lot of money for me,” said the festivalgoer, who is on disability. So far Rankin has been unsuccessful.

His request was declined, initially by phone and subsequently in an email from Alain Simoneau, assistant director of guest and security services for the Bell Centre. (Evenko is owned by the parent company of the Montreal Canadiens.)

“I consider that the means of prevention, information and security were sufficient to support someone that is found in a vulnerable situation,” it said in part.

Dad being dads, Rankin has meanwhile purchased tickets for his daughter to see Florence and the Machine in October in Boston, together with him and his girlfriend.