At annual Country Thunder music festival, reports of sexual assaults against young women continue to emerge
<p>The 2024 Country Thunder music festival on the Illinois-Wisconsin border featured, among many others, country stars Eric Church and Lainey Wilson. Two young women who were friends from work decided to attend the annual summer event and stay overnight at a campsite on the grounds.</p><p>But what should have been a weekend of fun, soaking up live country music outdoors over several days and partying took a dark turn when one of the women was given what she believes was a knock-out drug by a young man — and then sexually assaulted by him.</p><p>“These boys from the camp next to us kind of invited us over to have some food and have some drinks,” said the other woman, an Arlington Heights native who is now 21.</p><p>She said she stepped away briefly without her friend, and upon returning, saw she was “about passed out,” disheveled and only able to mumble a few words — alarming her enough to call police in a panic.</p><p>The accuser, who was 17 at the time, recalls taking a drink, and then being ushered into her tent.
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<p>The 2024 Country Thunder music festival on the Illinois-Wisconsin border featured, among many others, country stars Eric Church and Lainey Wilson. Two young women who were friends from work decided to attend the annual summer event and stay overnight at a campsite on the grounds.</p><p>But what should have been a weekend of fun, soaking up live country music outdoors over several days and partying took a dark turn when one of the women was given what she believes was a knock-out drug by a young man — and then sexually assaulted by him.</p><p>“These boys from the camp next to us kind of invited us over to have some food and have some drinks,” said the other woman, an Arlington Heights native who is now 21.</p><p>She said she stepped away briefly without her friend, and upon returning, saw she was “about passed out,” disheveled and only able to mumble a few words — alarming her enough to call police in a panic.</p><p>The accuser, who was 17 at the time, recalls taking a drink, and then being ushered into her tent. Next thing she knew, she was waking up confused, with her eyeglasses broken.</p><p>She has no doubt she was “roofied and raped,” and says if she knew then what she knows now, she would’ve pressed charges against the man and gone to the hospital for a thorough exam.</p><p>But while in the moment, she says, “I was obviously young, I was obviously shook and I didn’t want to think about this any more.”</p><p>The festival — which is held near Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, serves as a huge draw from the Chicago area and capitalizes on the increasing popularity of country music in the region among young people — consistently draws big acts, with Keith Urban a headliner at this year’s event that kicks off Thursday and ends Sunday.</p><p>Also consistent: accusations that young women in attendance are getting sexually assaulted by men at the fest, according to a Chicago Sun-Times examination that found:<br></p><ul class="rte2-style-ul" id="rte-9a00e1f2-7ae3-11f1-8832-e35c4d85c307"><li>Authorities investigated whether a college-age woman at the 2025 Country Thunder festival was raped. Police records stated, “She reported she was in the ‘campgrounds’ and was consuming some alcohol...
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- <p>The 2024 Country Thunder music festival on the Illinois-Wisconsin border featured, among many others, country stars Eric Church and Lainey Wilson. Two young women who were friends from work decided to attend the annual summer event and stay overnight at a campsite on the grounds.</p><p>But what should have been a weekend of fun, soaking up live country music outdoors over several days and partying took a dark turn when one of the women was given what she believes was a knock-out drug by a young man — and then sexually assaulted by him.</p><p>“These boys from the camp next to us kind of invited us over to have some food and have some drinks,” said the other woman, an Arlington Heights native who is now 21.</p><p>She said she stepped away briefly without her friend, and upon returning, saw she was “about passed out,” disheveled and only able to mumble a few words — alarming her enough to call police in a panic.</p><p>The accuser, who was 17 at the time, recalls taking a drink, and then being ushered into her tent.
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At annual Country Thunder music festival, reports of sexual assaults against young women continue to emerge
Sources1TypeCoverageChicago Sun-Times