ALMOST half of female festival-goers aged under 40 have faced unwanted sexual behaviour, a survey found.

The 43 per cent figure should serve as a wake-up call for the industry to treat sexual violence as seriously as other crimes at festivals, said campaigners for women’s safety.

Sexualised verbal harassment and unwelcome and forceful dancing were the most common forms of unwanted sexual behaviour experienced in the survey for the Press Association.

But 11 per cent of women said they had been sexually assaulted at a festival, four per cent of them while they were unconscious or asleep. In contrast, three per cent of men suffered sexual assaults.

Overall, 22 per cent of festival-goers had faced unwelcome sexual attention, the YouGov survey showed. But only two per cent had reported the incidents to the police.

Jen Calleja, of the Good Night Out Campaign, called the research ‘shocking but not surprising’, saying it ‘helps prove what we already know through anecdotal evidence’.

Beth Granter, a 35-year-old campaign manager with social network Care2, said she was flashed at by a man at Reading Festival when she was 17. She did not report what happened but felt vulnerable for the rest of the festival.

‘I think this kind of thing happens more at festivals than in the street during the day,’ she said.

Tracey Wise, founder of campaign group Safe Gigs For Women, said the findings give ‘us something to show to festival organisers so we can say “You need to take this on board”. Because at the moment I don’t think festival organisers do enough.’