a former trainee of Hellfest accuses the organizing company of the metal festival of moral and sexual harassment

A 31-year-old woman accuses Hellfest of moral and sexual harassment, reports France Bleu Loire Océan on Monday March 27. A hearing is scheduled in Nantes in Loire-Atlantique on Tuesday March 28 for facts dating back to 2017. More specifically, the 30-year-old is suing the association which organizes the metal festival, Hellfest Productions, before the Nantes industrial tribunal.

At the time, in 2017, the young woman was 25 years old and was doing her end-of-studies internship at the festival in Clisson. She then said that she had received insults and suffered public humiliation from her internship tutor. She claims he tricked her into wearing sexy outfits and makeup: “He called me his ‘sexy assistant’ and clearly told me that I had to make people ‘hard'”.

Post-traumatic stress

The young woman also talks about threatening behavior at the end of her internship: “I was really scared, I thought he was going to hit me, he was so threatening”. Finally, she decides to leave her internship a month early. According to the 30-year-old’s lawyer, Marie-Océane Gelly, “we are on a form of harassment of atmosphere” against which “the labor code applies”.

The former intern says she has experienced psychological suffering since the end of her internship and experienced post-traumatic stress, which explains why it took her several years to continue the festival: “It’s the time it took me to have the courage to do it”, she says. The judgment of the Labor Court of Nantes will be put under advisement. Solicited by France Bleu Loire Océan, the management of Hellfest did not wish to comment on this ongoing affair.