Kevin Lyman Reveals Plan to Make Warped Tour a Safer Place

Over the past couple of months, Vans Warped Tour head honcho Kevin Lyman has been under a lot of scrutiny follow a handful of sexual allegations against artists (and a YouTuber) he had tapped to play this year’s tour.

After trying to figure out ways to combat all the hate from fans, or former fans at this rate, of the festival, Lyman began to write a three-part Op-Ed for Alternative Press, addressing the issues.

In the most recent installation, in which he reveals he complete by-passed Op-Ed two, he revealed his plan which he hopes will help prevent all of these types of cases and make the scene a lot more safe for those underage fans attending.

Check out his five point plan below and if you want to help out in any way, shoot Lyman a tweet or something.

1. At this point we are reaching out to many organizations that focus on sexual abuse, cyberbullying, predator awareness and teen suicide to encourage them to come out to Warped Tour this summer. Pick up their information and put it in a safe place, use it if you ever need to.

2. I have started to speak to many artists, managers, labels and other people in our world about shooting a number of PSAs for a soon-to-be-named program. I will ask those who choose to participate to have them on a splash page for anyone trying to enter their sites. It may get repetitive, but at this point, it’s needed.

3. Being In A Band 101: We are not preparing our bands for this world. I am developing a course that any band or artist will be required to attend before they are put on a national tour. This course will be taught by professionals in the field of adolescent behavior, artists who have been there, have possibly had transgressions and how to avoid the mistakes they made, with the possibility that the “scared straight” approach will help with people entering our world. I will be speaking to people all summer to get them onboard. Hopefully, they will agree this course is as important as social media promotion 101—or some other things young bands have to learn.

4. In addition, I am going to reach out to YouTube, Twitter and the management companies who work with young personalities to implement this program in their worlds. At this point, the YouTubers are living in a fantasy world and are paid by these companies to pitch products. Many drop out of high school, gain the illusion of power and then when the real world comes into play, many have no ability on how to handle it.

5. I am looking for an organization or hotline to partner with in the future, one that will encourage you to contact them if you ever feel threatened by anyone within this world we live in. I speak to so many parents who have just given up monitoring or being involved with their kids and the internet, because you are smarter than all of us and we can’t keep up with technology. It is not that we don’t want to; our brains do not process things the way yours does. You can bypass any security setting if you choose, hack into sites, create phantom accounts and personalities. Most parents gave up trying to figure this out. You won: Now you just need to figure out how you can safely manage the online world you so easily navigate. Regardless if it’s online or the real world, there are truly sick people out there who know how to manipulate you and we hear about it everyday. Again, I implore you to be careful.

Awful News: Two Men Arrested for Assaulting Woman at Reading and Leeds

What should be one of the most enjoyable weekends across the pond has turned into an awful one for one attendants.

The Guardian is reporting that two people were arrested during yesterday’s installation of Reading and Leeds and not for some petty crime charge like theft or drugs, but for something a lot more serious.

According to British press, a 14-year-old boy from Surrey and a 31-year-old man from London have been arrested on suspicion of raping a young woman and are currently being held by Thames Valley police.

The victim, a 19-year-old woman, reported being attacked Thursday night “in a caravan on the festival trader’s site.” The woman, said she had met the man and the boy earlier in the day near an ice-cream van near a mobile phone charging station in one of the campsite.

But for those attending this year’s event and are a little concerned about things like this being a norm, don’t worry because it appears that the police have things under control, according to Chief Inspector Dave Parker, who spoke directly with The Guardian about this possibly occurring again.

“There is currently a scene watch in place and I would like to reassure those attending the festival that crime levels remain low and crimes of this nature are very rare. Officers are patrolling the site to support on-site security and if anyone has any concerns, please feel free to approach our officers to discuss this.”

On the upside, there have only been 21 (reported) crimes committed since Wednesday; five alleged drug offenses and 13 suspected thefts.

This year’s line up of Reading and Leeds has quite roster with blink-182, Paramore, The Arctic Monkeys, Jimmy Eat World, Queens of the Stone Age, Imagine Dragons, You Me at Six and many (many, many) more.

Conor Oberst Accepts Accuser’s Apology

This past Monday, news broke that the woman who had accused Bright Eyes frontman, Conor Oberst of sexual assault this past December (Joanie Faircloth), had lied about the whole incident.

Today, Oberst has released his own statement in which he accepts her apology for accusing him of such a horrific crime.

“I have accepted Joanie Faircloth’s apology and retraction to clear my name. This has been extremely difficult and stressful for me personally and for those I love. I’m appreciative of the family, friends, fans, and business partners who supported me throughout this and look forward to happier times as we all move forward with out lives.”

After almost eight months of having the world believe she had been sexual assaulted by Oberst, Faircloth came clean earlier this week with a statement in which she revealed that she had never even met Oberst and that she had made the whole thing up just to get attention and that it happen at a time when she was “trying to cope” with her son’s illness.

No word yet on whether Oberst will go through with his libel lawsuit against Faircloth or if he will drop the case now that his name has been somewhat vindicated with her reveal.

Domestic Violence Advocacy Groups Asks Conor Oberst to Drop Libel Suit

Just when you thought that the “Conor Oberst Rape Chronicles” had come to an end when the singer filed a libel suit against the accuser Joanie Faircloth, a national domestic violence advocacy group is asking him to drop the suit because they claim it will stop other sexual assault victims from coming forward.

The group, Right to Speak Out tried to contact the Bright Eyes frontman to ask him to drop the legal suit even though he had announced that all the proceeds from the suit would be donated to several nonprofits supporting victims of violence against women. They claim that no matter what, the lawsuit will still damaged “the  culture of silence around sexual assault.”

“It is offensive to imply that filing such a lawsuit is a respectable way to procure money regardless of what he declares he intends to do with it,” the group said in a statement. “Even if Ms. Faircloth was not truthful, vilifying discussion of sexual assault by filing such a lawsuit only adds to the problem of under-reporting that enables sexual assault to proliferate at alarming rates.” Only 21 percent of rapes are reported, according to the nonprofit’s statistic, with only seven percent of those ending in convictions.

Right to Speak Out in its statement twice said Oberst “raped” Faircloth, which, again, he has denied. Emily Davis, a spokesperson for the group, explained in a telephone interview: “Typically there is this idea of innocence until proven guilty, and in this case the lawsuit has actually been filed against Ms. Faircloth. Using that standard presumption we would presume that she is innocent of libel and that these were true statements, that was talking about those experiences from a point of truth, until proven otherwise.”

Neither Faircloth nor Oberst have commented on the matter since the lawsuit was filed last week. Coincidentally enough, Oberst first solo album in six years, Upside Down Mountain is due out on May 20.

Conor Oberst Files Libel Lawsuit in Rape Defamation Case

It has now been over a month since we have heard anything about the alleged rape case involving Bright Eyes’ frontman, Conor Oberst. The last piece of information that had been given, came through Oberst’s publicist who said the claims were false and that a libel suit would be on the horizon and today, it seems that Oberst had already spoken to a libel attorney and is now filing a lawsuit.

Last night, Oberst’s camp set the story straight after the lawsuit made headlines. The full post on the singer’s behalf can be read here.

“February 19, 2014

Today Conor Oberst filed a libel lawsuit in a New York federal court against Joanie Faircloth, a resident of North Carolina, who falsely accused him of rape in the comments section of the xoJane website in December of 2013 and again, some days later, on her Tumblr page. The suit counters Faircloth’s baseless allegations and states that Oberst never had any physical contact with her, either at the concert in Durham, NC at which she claims the attack took place, or at any other time. The only connection between Oberst and Faircloth was one of artist and fan – a fan who has posted laudatory comments about Oberst elsewhere online, including describing attending his band’s concert as the “Best memory ever!” 

The lawsuit filed today outlines Faircloth’s history of inventing stories and personalities online in order to gain attention. Although her false statements about Oberst have since been deleted from the locations where they were initially posted online, Oberst’s suit alleges that her malicious lies spread across the Internet and are archived by multiple blogs. Through his attorneys, Oberst requested that Faircloth recant her false accusations, but she ignored the requests. Oberst has thus been forced to proceed with this libel suit in order to set the record straight and to clear his name. 

Oberst is seeking to promote the truth and repair the distress this has brought upon him and his family. Oberst intends to donate the proceeds of this suit to charities benefiting the victims of violence against women.”

Coincidentally, Oberst’s new album, his first in six years, is set to be released on May 20. Curiouser, and curiouser indeed.