This year’s Eurovision song contest in Italy has been marred by allegations of misconduct after several female volunteers made claims that they were "groped" and "touched up" during the launch party held at the Venaria Palace on the outskirts of Turin, MailOnline reports.
According to the media outlet, one woman contacted a "Me Too-style campaigning group" called Non Una Di Meno (Not One Less) and said that she had been "touched on her bottom and waist" by "dancers from a foreign singer", although she did not identify the alleged offenders.
Another woman who was present at the event said that she "was there as a volunteer to help the delegations and they had their hands all over us".
"It was happening to a lot of the female volunteers who were there to act as hostesses and in the end a lot left because of what was happening", she said. "I was really looking forward to being a volunteer at Eurovision but I never expected anything like this to happen".
The woman also complained that "what should have been a wonderful experience transformed itself into an evening of groping and molestation".
The media outlet notes that Martin Osterdahl of the European Broadcasting Union said he wasn’t aware of "any complaints", and a Eurovision Song Contest spokesperson told them: "The city council have already denied all this. It didn't happen".
Not One Less, however, did not seem pleased with these denials, with a spokeswoman for the group lamenting that, “as always happens, the voices of the women who have suffered violence are silenced and their accounts are not believed”.
"Harassment is not a game and we are not toys", she added.