Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.08.2013, Side 14

We specialise in trips to the Blue Lagoon(3-hour stop)on the way from or to the airport To book in advance: tel:+354 588 5522 or on www.hreyfill.is E-mail: tour@hreyfill.is
All major credit cards accepted by the driver.
We specialize in personalized sightseeing day trips
to the natural wonders of Iceland
– for small groups of 4-8 persons
We´ll make you
a Comfortable Price offer!
Iceland | News
Tómas Gabríel Benjamin
Let’s Talk About The Elephant In The Room
It’s called “rape at Þjóðhátíð”
Þjóðhátíð í Eyjum is an annual outdoor festival that has been celebrated in Vestmanneyjar since 1874. The three-day bash takes place on Verslunarmannahel-
gin (“Merchants’ Weekend,” Iceland’s version of bank holiday) and features performances from some of Iceland’s most popular musicians as well as a slew of
community events—not dissimilar in structure to Denmark’s Roskilde or Glastonbury in the UK. Þjóðhátíð has been a part of the small fishing community’s
cultural identity for generations. However, in the late nineties and early noughties, a number of sexual assaults completely changed the public perception
of the festival, which was always considered a family friendly affair. It seems that rapists had been taking advantage of festivalgoers’ inebriated state, with
horrible consequences for all involved.
The festival organisers did not do them-
selves—or the rape victims—any favours
with their reaction to the discourse, ac-
cusing rape support groups like Stígamót
of creating problems and reporting more
rapes than actually happened. The two
sides fought a prolonged and ugly battle
through the local media, which has thank-
fully calmed down for now.
The ceasefire has not made the problems
go away, however, and several rapes were
reported at the 2012 edition of Þjóðhátíð.
Enter the “Pink Elephant”
For 2013, the people responsible for the
festival, Vestmannaeyjar’s sports club,
ÍBV (Íþróttabandalag Vestmannaeyja),
aim to actively combat the problem. Their
main effort involved the drafting in of a
preventative group called Bleiki fíllinn
(“The Pink Elephant,” founded in 2012 af-
ter the Vestmannaeyjar SlutWalk), which
has the job of spreading the message that
rape is never OK, and that people’s choice
of attire or state of inebriation is irrelevant
in every instance. Their message boils
down to: never assume consent, and never
ignore when consent is withdrawn.
We reached out to Stígamót spokesper-
son Guðrún Jónsdóttir to ask what the ide-
al preparations outdoor festivals—which
are in general notorious rapist stomping
grounds—can make to ensure the safety
and well-being of their patrons. Guðrún
responded that it was very important for
outdoor festivals like Þjóðhátíð to operate
a well-functioning security team, and have
the right support environment in place for
possible rape victims. “It is essential that
all the attendees know what measures are
in place for victims,” she said.
The head of Bleiki fíllinn, Jóhanna Ýr
Jónsdóttir, says that is exactly what the
group is there to do, and to remind people
that there are no vague rules of sexual con-
duct. “It doesn’t matter if a person was in-
terested in you earlier,” she says. “If she’s
asleep, she can’t give consent.”
She mentions an American study in
which 70% of all male rapists were found
to have been under the influence when
they committed the crime. “Their judg-
ment is impaired, so we want to simply tell
them that they should just stop instead of
hoping for the best,” Jóhanna says. “Just
wait until they wake up to see if you can
get consent.”
The group’s name is meant to reference
an “elephant in the room” that nobody has
dared to mention, rape. One of the group’s
objectives is to open the discussion in or-
der to address misconceptions people have
about rape. “Rape happens,” she says, “and
survivors should not feel ashamed of it. An
older lady stopped me last year as I was dis-
tributing pamphlets in the festival’s white
tents, and she said she’d been going to the
festival for 30 to 50 years, and people knew
about the rapes, but it was the first time they
were talking about the problem!”
Heralding a new era
One of Bleiki fíllinn’s stated goals is to
actively encourage rape victims to step
forward. “We’re not trying to reduce the
number of reported rapes, but to reduce
the number of actual rapes,” Jóhanna
says. According to her, the organisers of
Þjóðhátíð have been very receptive and
positive towards the Pink elephant, eager
to work with the group and perhaps repair
the damage their public dispute with vari-
ous anti-rape organisations did.
Part of what fuelled the long stand-
ing feud, according to Jóhanna, is that
Vestmannaeyjar locals easily get defen-
sive about Þjóðhátíð. “The moment any-
one raises criticism about it, whether it’s
Stígamót or anyone else, people just close
up, so it becomes difficult to talk about the
problems. My dream,” she says, “is that in
a few years we will have addressed and
dealt with these problems in a way that
we can bring together the organisers and
Stígamót to work together.”
Although Bleiki fíllinn do not work
directly with Stígamót, they have ties with
other groups like the Samþykki (“con-
sent”) group, and the people behind the
‘Fáðu já’ sexual education campaign (more
on that on page 16). They plan to screen
parts of ‘Fáðu já’ during Þjóðhátíð in the
hopes that people will take the message to
heart.
Jóhanna wants to bring the festival
back to its roots, as a family friendly af-
fair where people can sing along to the
songs, have a merry time and feel safe. The
organisers of the festival are bumping up
security with more cameras and people
on the ground, as well as possibly posting
guards at the gender-segregated toilets, but
Jóhanna wants to look at what other festi-
vals have done. She mentions the Danish
Roskilde and Icelandic Eistnaflug in par-
ticular for having very low crime rates and
different attitudes towards rape.
Sending a clear message
“Stebbi [the head of Eistnaflug] does
a great job by having a clear and well
known policy regarding assault and
crime,” she says, “which is something
we’d love to see with Þjóðhátíð.” If you do
something wrong at Eistnaflug, the per-
son just gets kicked out and their festival
wristband gets cut. “It encourages people
to simply behave.”
“It is atrocious for Þjóðhátíð to be
called a ‘rape fest,’ and people from Vest-
manneyjar are really hurt when they hear
it, but people actually know, unfortunate-
ly,” she says, almost too upset to finish
the sentence, “that people get raped at the
festival. This happens despite a lot of work
being put into trying to stop it from hap-
pening.”
People can still fall through the cracks,
and it would be wishful thinking to assume
that this year’s festival will be entirely free
of sexual assault. Still, the visionary work
of Bleiki fíllinn will hopefully allow more
people to come away from Þjóðhátíð with
pleasant memories.
Stills from video
We're not trying
to reduce the
number of reported
rapes, but to
reduce the number
of actual rapes.
“
„
Þjóðhátíð í Eyjum takes place in Vestmanneyjar every
first weekend in August. More info at www.dalurinn.is
Óskar Hallgrímsson - Pic mostly unrelated
Herjólfsdalur, Vestmannaeyjar www.dalurinn.is Every first weekend in August
Þjóðhátíð í Eyjum
14The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 11 — 2013