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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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:
- 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… a mixed drink” and “the next thing she knew, she was waking up in a white van where some ‘guys’ were calling her a ‘slut’… she did not have any bra or underwear on after getting out of the white van.”
- A young woman at the 2022 festival was apparently sexually assaulted inside a camping trailer by a man she had met in the line for the bathroom. He wouldn’t let her leave the “camper” and forced himself on her, records show. Shortly thereafter, the woman “asked the male to use his phone to call her phone to find it,” and he said no “and hit her in the face.”
- Last year, a 58-year-old Colorado resident was charged in Kenosha County with sexual assault and other crimes against a “very drunk” 15-year-old girl at Country Thunder in 2017, public records show. The man also allegedly beat her.
- A 2019 lawsuit alleges a young man raped a 16-year-old suburban girl in a tent at Country Thunder in 2015. The man pleaded guilty to other charges as the judge said: “There’s just so much trouble there on a regular basis.”
- Sex crimes have been so worrisome at Country Thunder that, more than a decade ago, local nurses launched an awareness campaign that included a booth at the event to bring attention to the issue.
Rebecca Rodriguez, who helped create the program, believes the outreach effort worked for a while, as the number of suspected rape cases declined.
“They were very supportive of us being there,” Rodriguez said of the organizers.
“Prevention is everyone’s responsibility, not just healthcare providers or law enforcement,” Rodriguez said. “Together we have the power to educate, protect and ensure every survivor knows they are not alone.”
Several years ago Rodriguez left the health system that employed her, now called Advocate Health.
A spokeswoman for the Advocate Health system says that “as recent as last year our forensic nurses have attended Country Thunder and similar events to provide resources and education about sexual assault and domestic violence.”
The Sun-Times contacted Country Thunder organizers and heard back from Los Angeles attorney Scott Zolke of Loeb & Loeb LLP who asked a reporter to “direct any inquiries regarding Country Thunder” to him.
After being sent questions and interview requests, Zolke responded: “At this time, Country Thunder has no comment with respect to your investigation, and I won’t speculate with respect to any records you may have received under the Wisconsin Public Records Law open records request. Please contact the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office for any additional information.”
Led by Sheriff David Zoerner, the office already had turned over relevant police reports to the Sun-Times in response to an open records request but wouldn’t comment beyond that except to say the office “has no additional comment beyond the records that have already been released in response to your open records request.”
“With respect to Country Thunder security, the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office is contracted by Country Thunder to provide law enforcement services for the event. Country Thunder also employs its own private security personnel who work alongside law enforcement.”
“As with any large-scale event in Kenosha County, the safety and security of attendees, staff, and the surrounding community remains our top priority. We take enforcement of the law and protection of the public very seriously. The Sheriff’s Office staffs the event appropriately and is assisted by numerous local, county, state, and other public safety partners to provide a coordinated law enforcement presence throughout the festival.”
Kenosha County’s board of supervisors chairman Mark Nordigian says the event has changed over the years as needed, including with tighter controls over access to the campgrounds. While one sexual assault is “one too many,” he doesn’t see sex crimes as “rampant” at the fest, and encourages female concert-goers to engage in the buddy system and everyone to ease up on alcohol consumption.
The accuser from 2024, who had also been to Country Thunder in past years, says security seemed to be fine in the festival area with the music. But she says it was severely lacking in the nearby campground area.
The 2019 suit also takes aim at the festival’s safety and security, saying those involved in putting on the show “knew or should have known that unsafe and potentially dangerous activities were occurring on a regular basis during all aspects” of the event.
That included “underage consumption of alcoholic beverages, unauthorized individuals being permitted into the event grounds, assaults, including sexual assaults occurring on the Festival premises.”
Among the alleged security failures cited, poor cell phone service meant “communicating with Security, calling or texting for help, communicating with parents, communicating with friends or for any other purpose” was difficult and “created a potential danger to patrons of the festival.”
On July 26, 2015, the victim, then a minor and a student, became “separated from her group of friends” at the Wisconsin event, “and after repeatedly and unsuccessfully attempting to contact her friends and Mother, was physically and sexually assaulted in the campground area” by a young man, court records allege.
“On information and belief, on and before July 26, 2015, numerous women, including women under the age of 17, reported being sexually assaulted at Country Thunder,” according to court records.
The lawsuit accuses organizers of portraying the event as “family friendly and safe for minors, despite having knowledge that prior sexual assaults had occurred and excessive consumption of alcohol was permitted, including underage drinking.”
In court records, organizers denied any wrongdoing. The case was dismissed in 2020 “having been resolved” with some of the defendants “pursuant to settlement,” records say.
The accused assailant, who was 19 at the time of the encounter and lived in far northwest suburban Wonder Lake, was arrested and charged with sex offenses, including sexual assault, records show.
He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to probation.
At his 2016 sentencing, the mother of the girl spoke in court about her daughter:
“She had a great life until that final night at Country Thunder last summer. That’s when she was 16 years old” and subjected to “a humiliating and devastating rape.”
“On the night that this happened people that saw her said she was wandering around… in a total daze. They saw the assailant run off and they are the ones that called security.”
“This has also affected our family… when I told my son what happened — he’s 22, he goes to school” out of state, “he started crying and then he started yelling and screaming at me. ‘Why did you allow her to go there? I told you there were bad guys there. Why did you allow it?’”
“And you know what, that’s something I have to live with because I was the one that allowed it.”
“We agreed to this plea deal because we thought it was best for our own daughter’s mental health,” the mother added.
Kenosha County Judge Mary Kay Wagner told the mother, according to a court transcript: “You know, and sorry to say that your son is right about Country Thunder. There’s just so much trouble there on a regular basis with adult women and young women and men who also can get into circumstances. So it’s been a terrible — well, I should say it causes a lot of business for the District’s Attorney’s Office in many forums unfortunately.”
The mother responded: “And parents are not aware of that in the Chicago area and I’ve done my best to warn people.”
Wagner seemed to agree, saying: “I had a group of great-nieces that were going from Hinsdale this last year and I called their dad. I said, I don’t think that’s good. Oh, they’re Ubering. Oh, okay. I’m just telling you. It’s bad, dangerous.”
Kenosha County District Attorney Xavier Solis didn’t respond to questions about prosecutions related to Country Thunder.
But some of the sexual assault cases never make it that far because victims may not go to police or, if authorities do become involved, the victims sometimes decide not to press charges, according to records and interviews.
The case from last summer appears to be one of them.
When asked if “she had had sex or had been sexually assaulted,” the young woman told officers “she did not know but felt ‘funny,’” and “continued to cry and was visibly upset.”
“I observed some brownish stain on the right side of her dress, just above her right hip area” among other “spots,” which an officer said “were consistent with semen.”
An officer told the young woman “how it was not OK if she had been ‘raped.’ I told her she deserved to have justice.”
The young woman told police she was “concerned about her sisters, her parents’ reaction, and that she has a scholarship” for college. The woman, however, “asked to go to the hospital.”
It’s unclear if police followed up later. In the 2024 case involving the young woman who was 17, a detective did reach out to her after the event.
Police reports name a suspect in her case, though because he hasn’t been charged with a crime the Sun-Times isn’t identifying him. He couldn’t be reached for comment.
Country Thunder is held in several other locales each year, with its website saying: “Country Thunder is a music festival brand that hosts several concerts in North America each year. They have operated festivals in Wisconsin and Arizona since 1996, and shows in Saskatchewan since 2005 and in Alberta since 2016. In 2019, Country Thunder Florida joined the family!”
One of the Canadian events saw three sexual assault reports in 2024, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which indicated that a sexual assault under Canadian law can include any “sexual activity without consent.”
Country Thunder police calls 2024-2025
Note: Not all reported sex offenses in the police calls involved sexual assaults.
Source: Kenosha County sheriff’s office