Women told 'take care' at Festival Republic events

I think Melvin Benn's upset at the reports of two rapes at Latitude over the weekend is quite genuine, but the official response is a bit poorly thought out:

Melvyn Benn, the chief executive of Festival Republic which runs Latitude, said the organisation was planning to raise awareness of the potential dangers faced by female festival-goers at all its events, which include Reading, Leeds and the Big Chill. "It is fair to say that in the future we will be making much more high profile the issues of being alone at night, particularly if you are a girl – definitely," said Benn.

Hmm. I'm sure the intention isn't to imply that it's in any way the woman to blame for walking round a festival site on their own at night, but there's certainly a whiff of that coming across in the advice. The focus should be on making rapists unwelcome in the first place, not on telling women there are no-go areas and times for them.