Making Gigs Safe For All.

Safe Gigs for Women.....

I recently attended a Frank Turner gig at Cardiff University and came across a stand promoting Safe Gigs for Women (SGFW). I was struck that, in 2016 there was a need to raise awareness of the dangers and sexual risks women face all too often, when attending gigs, and have been motivated to write about the campaign in my column this week. For some women the risk of harassment at gigs is very real and that is something that Tracey Wise of ‘Safe Gigs for Women’ knows only too well. Tracey found herself a target of sexual harassment at a gig and as a result decided to found SGFW, initially as a twitter account where women could share their stories of harassment at gigs and festivals.

Established 2015 Safe Gigs For Women aims to work with gig/festival goers, venues, events, bands and artists to get sexual harassment out of our music venues.

Their aims are

Gig goers: Work with gig goers to spread the word that its not ok to grope, threaten or harass others. Encourage victims to speak out and supporters to advocate that this behaviour will not be tolerated. It is not about preaching or disapproving or spoiling fun. It's not about ending moshpits . It's about getting a greater understanding of how an individuals behaviour impacts on others. Offenders and those affected by such people need to be aware that where venues support our aims they will take harassment seriously and can expect the venue to take swift action.

Venues: Firstly talking to venues, promotors, festivals and those responsible for putting gigs on to ensure they take reports of sexual harassment and other threats to women at gigs seriously. SGFW plan to work with venues to create a standard in the industry for safe venues. They then aim to campaign to get the standards adopted nationally.

Bands: Talking to the music press bands and artists. Getting bands on board to recognise our standards, talk about our work to audiences recognising and spreading what is acceptable.

Tracey Wise has been busy over the past few months touring the U.K. with bands such as Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls, spreading the message that live music shows should be a safe place for everyone regardless of gender, sexuality, race and culture.

Safe Gigs For Women have further been working with a variety of other acts including Oxygen Thief/Non Canon, The Sad Song Co; The Levellers; Ben Marwood and Sean McGowan attending their gigs and speaking with their gig goers as to what they can do to help. This could be something as simple as just saying hi to people around them whom may be on their own, down to not leaving someone who is lost for whatever reason at a festival until you find their friends or someone with better skills to help.

As a woman who regularly promotes and attends gigs, for me Safe Gigs for Women is a brilliant initiative and If you feel you can support or want to know more, you can check out Safe Gigs For Women on Facebook, Instagram, twitter or their website sgfw.org.uk.