Hello all, I guess emboldened by the post from earlier, I just wanted to write this after two bad experiences at the sphere this weekend. In reality, this happens at many shows (Phish and others) I go to and has ranged from inappropriate touching to being aggressively groped on two separate occasions. A man comes to talk to me, and without my consent grabs my hip, the small of my back, my elbow or butt. I've been tickled, massaged and almost all of my girlfriends who go to shows have had similar experiences. It's not ok and it is upsetting. The first night someone came up from behind me and started talking to me and reached his hand into my hip and started moving his fingers around. I was sitting down and wasn't in a position to turn and confront him and I didn't want to escalate the situation. The second involved someone placing both his hands on my hips to move past me in the crowd. I do think the happens to me more often when I am at a show alone or with few other people. I have been to many shows by myself or with one other friend since most of my phish friends are on the opposite coast from me. I don't remember it happening as much when I am with a larger group.
Please do better. It is never acceptable to deliberately touch someone without their consent. If you need to get someone's attention because you are passing them and saying excuse me isn't working a small tap on the shoulder is usually fine, but besides that there are few scenarios I can think of that are exceptions. Thank you for reading.
edit: thanks all for sharing your stories and contributions to the discussion around this. Although the focus of this post is on the negative, I have met so many wonderful, kind, smart, and respectful people at Phish and other shows and some of my best friends are through Phish.
Athough I have not yet looked at it, I encourage anyone who reads this to check out [Groove Safe has bystander training](https://groovesafe.org/training) in hopes that it is useful! Thanks to u/CatFacedBoyMan for plugging!