S&C Safe Spaces
We are passionate about making our spaces safer – both at Strawberries & Creem Festival, and across other live music events, venues, and workplaces.
We would love to hear your thoughts on how we – and other organisations like us – can improve safety and support for our audiences, artists and staff.
Please feel free to share any ideas or feedback via the form linked below.
Thank you for your support.
#SafeSpacesNow
What is Safe Spaces Now?
The #SafeSpacesNow campaign is a music industry initiative to combat sexual harassment, abuse, and gender-based violence – at live events, festivals, in nightclubs and workplaces. We are calling on everyone in our industry to unite against this behaviour, and commit to making our spaces safer for women, girls, and marginalised communities.
Why is change so urgent?
The problem is pervasive.
- 70% of women in the UK have been subjected to sexual harassment -
- 60% of music industry workers have faced harassment -
- 40% of women aged under 40 have been harassed at a live music event -
The music and events industries must rise up now and commit to change together.
How is S&C involved?
Strawberries & Creem teamed up with gender equality champions UN Women UK to draw attention to this emergency, publishing a co-written open letter in July 2021. This drew widespread support from across the music and events industries, with the likes of Emily Eavis from Glastonbury, Anne-Marie, MNEK, Mabel and more adding their voices.
We then collaborated to deliver the world’s first Safe Spaces Now festival at S&C 2021, implementing a range of measures to improve on-site safety and support.
How did this look at S&C 2021?
These measures were crowdsourced by UN Women UK from workshops with over 700 people. Their community of women and girls lead on the design of solutions, supported by their decade of experience and expertise in creating safe public spaces around the world.
The solutions we introduced at the festival included training staff to respond to harassment appropriately; creating safe spaces to access help and advice on site; and adopting a Code of Conduct for all attendees and staff to follow.
We saw incredible levels of support and engagement from everyone – both before the festival, and on-site during the weekend – with so much great feedback on the campaign. Lots of women (and men as well) said the measures made them feel safer and more supported, and encouraged a positive culture and atmosphere at the event.
What are the plans for 2022?
For S&C 2022, we are passionate about continuing to promote Safe Spaces Now – growing national support for the movement, and scaling up our own activities at the festival in June.
As part of 16 Days of Activism, we joined UN Women UK and other organisations in advocating against gender-based violence. We must eliminate sexual harassment and abuse at live music events and workplaces across our industry.
How can I support the movement?
We would love your support. Please head to our suggestions form at the top of this page to offer your thoughts on how we can make our festival safer, and any ideas you would like to see implemented across all / other live music events.
You can also join the conversation by commenting and sharing on socials. Thank you for your support.
