At 9am on Monday 8th May, over 25 music festival websites will be switching off their sites for a day to show support for the zero-tolerance campaign, Safer Spaces, increasing awareness around sexual assault.
The campaign, conducted by The Association of Independent Festivals(AIF) bids to make festival-goers more aware of the support available to help victims of sexual assault.
Websites, including Bestival, Parklie and Secret Garden Party, will put their sites into a state of ‘blackout’ for 24 hours, as well as sharing short eye-catching animations across social media to encourage those attending festivals to promote safety.
Ranae from AIF told us: ‘We’re drawing attention towards an issue that will always be a much bigger problem in general society than it ever will be on a festival site, but in continuing to raise awareness and highlighting some of the good work already being done by festivals in this area and hopefully inspiring other festivals to follow suit.’
‘When you raise awareness around an issue such as sexual assault, the more people start talking about it and reporting on it. In highlighting the support services available for victims, as well as urging audiences at festivals to look out for each other, we’re hoping festival-goers will take advantage of the services available onsite and continue the conversation outside of a festival environment.’
We like to imagine festivals as places where nothing can go wrong for an entire weekend of music, drugs, sex and supposedly fun. But more and more sex crimes from festival sites are being reported in the wide-spread media across the UK each year.
According to statistics from the Office for National Statistics, conducted in 2013, In England and Wales alone, 85, 000 women are raped every year – and what’s worrying is that 85 percent of all serious sexual offences aren’t reported to the police. Campaigns like AIF’s Safer Spaces aim to commit to the staff and volunteer training to help those affected by sexual violence, and provide clear welfare provisions for victims during festival season.
If you have been affected by sexual assault, or are concerned about someone who may have been, you can contact Rape Crisis here.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.