A large music festival in Sweden that has hosted artists such as Kanye West, Robbie Williams and Iron Maiden has called off next year's event after several reports of sexual abuse.

The Bråvalla festival in Norrkoping, southern Sweden, says the decision was made after a rape was reported on Friday during a performance by pop singer Håkan Hellström at this year's four day event.

In addition to the rape report Swedish police say they recorded 11 cases of sexual abuses at the July 28-July 1 event.

Audience dancing during Bravalla festival in Norrkoping, Sweden, Saturday, July 1, 2017

The organizing company, FKP Scorpio, said in a statement released on Saturday it had attempted to prevent rapes and sexual abuses but 'some men - because we are talking about men - apparently can't behave. It's a shame.'

'Words cannot describe how incredibly sad we are about this, and we most seriously regret and condemn this. This is not f-ing okay. We do not accept this at our festival,' a festival representative wrote.

The festival, which started in 2013 and draws about 40,000, urged people to 'take care of each other, choke hatred and violence and let the music win.'

The organiser didn't say if or when the festival will return nor have they commented on whether the company's financial situation had anything to do with the cancellation – FKP Scorpio reported a loss of 75 million kronor ($8,904,500) in 2016.

'We don't have any further comments on that. We have issued a press release, and that's what applies here,' FKP press spokesperson Johanna Jonasson told Swedish broadcaster SVT.

This is not the first time the festival, which takes place near Norrköping in eastern Sweden, has been hit with sex abuse allegations.

A file photo of young women at the Bråvalla festival in Sweden

At last year's event there were five reported cases of rape and 12 sexual assault incidents.

The furore prompted the British band Mumford and Sons, which headlined the 2016 festival, to boycott Bråvalla until they had had assurances from the organizers and police they were doing something to combat the problems of sexual violence.

A debate about sexual molestation raged in Sweden in 2016 after it emerged that groups of boys, mainly of Afghani and Moroccan origin according to police reports, had been groping girls at the We Are STHLM youth festival for two years running.