Guelph student organizes topless festival

Women and men should revel in their right to go shirtless, says University of Guelph student Lindsay Webb, aged 22. That’s why she’s organized the second annual Top Freedom Day of Pride in Guelph, Ont. where that freedom was fought for and won fifteen years ago, she told the Guelph Mercury.

In 1991, Gwen Jacob, then a University of Guelph student herself, was convicted of an indecent act after she walked home from campus with her breasts in full view. Her 1996 appeal made it legal for women to go topless in Ontario anytime and anywhere.

The Top Freedom Arts Festival will be held in Riverside Park on Aug. 20 with plenty of music for men and women to bounce around to. Webb told the newspaper that she was surprised by the number of men who merely stood around to watch topless women last year. This year, she said she hopes more of them will take off their own shirts and enjoy the party.