Safe Spaces Now: Festivals
Festivals should be about music, dancing and making memories with your friends. Not fearing sexual harassment.
Together, we can make festivals safe and inclusive for everyone. This is Safe Spaces Now.
On 10th March 2021, we released a report revealing the prevalence of sexual harassment across the UK – only 3% of 18 to 24-year-olds had told us they weren’t being harassed.
This data was made up of your stories, of what you’ve experienced, and it was shared so many times that it reached over 1 billion people online.
Women reported feeling unsafe at festivals and in nightlife. They said they had little or no confidence that someone would step in and help if they were in a crisis or emergency in a public space.
Festivals are supposed to be your space to relax.
But how do you relax if you don’t feel safe?
We spoke to 700 women and girls across the UK in workshops to ask them what would make them feel safe.
From the 150 co-created solutions, one of the biggest needs was education and prevention. Ensuring people have the skills to change mindsets, intervene and support others.
That’s how Safe Spaces Now was born. Now, our Guardian Angels, are taking that work into the fields of festivals across the country.
Every volunteer Guardian Angel is specifically trained to:
Offer support to people who witness or experience sexual harassment
Connect festival goers with welfare services
Share advice and tips with anyone who needs it
Help to create a safe and inclusive event
Since then, festival fans have helped UN Women UK shape a national conversation. Your ideas have made a huge change at music festivals all over the UK.
What can you do to make UK festivals safer?
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Become a Guardian Angel: |
Turn your festival into a Safe Space Now: |
You’re making festivals safer spaces for everyone, with 440,000 festival goers reached (and counting)
440,000 festival goers reached
10 UK festivals
550 Guardian Angels recruited & trained
510 key festival staff trained
10 Staff & Contractor handbooks & policies developed
Since 2021
Meet the festivals saying yes to making Safe Spaces Now
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Together, we can make this a reality across the entire UK
Imagine a world where…
…you felt safe, no matter what space you were in
…you could go anywhere you choose, without fear of harassment
…you could go out at any time you choose, without worrying about what might happen
What would you do?
| Become a Guardian Angel: | Turn your festival into a Safe Space Now: |
Because this needs to end, now
Over 70%
of women in the UK say they have experienced sexual harassment in public
Only 3%
of women aged 18-24 told us they had not experienced any of the behaviours we asked about
This is a global issue – almost 9 in 10
women in some cities around the world feel unsafe in public spaces
Every 10 minutes
somewhere in the world an adolescent girl dies as a result of violence.
And the systems in place to reduce violence and harassment are not working.
Only 4% of women told us they reported the incidents of harassment to an official organisation – with 45% of women saying they didn’t believe reporting would help change anything.
We have to act now.
Data from YouGov Survey of over 1,000 women, commissioned by UN Women UK in January 2021.
Read the full data in the report by the APPG for UN Women.
UN Women UK: the only organisation working towards gender equality at all levels, in all areas of society
Right now, we’re facing a 300-year wait for gender equality. Women’s rights are being abused, threatened, and violated around the world. Progress won over decades is vanishing before our eyes.
Here at UN Women UK, we’re combating this through collective action at all levels of society – from governments to corporates, communities to individuals.
We’re here to ensure that every woman and girl has access to safety, choice and a voice. In the UK and around the world.