25 UK Music Festivals Websites Go Dark Today

Twenty Five UK music festivals websites have gone in to a dark mode (switched off) today as part of a zero-tolerance campaign highlighting sexual assaults.

The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) wants festival-goers to be aware of on-site support services available to help victims and so today they have launched their campaign ‘Safer Spaces’ which has been supported by UK Dance Festival including Bestival, Secret Garden Party, Nozstock and Parklife.

The hope is to raise greater awareness about sexual violence across everyone from audiences to artists to staff and volunteers – and to spread some key messages around “consent”, about “not being a bystander” and to take a “zero tolerance” approach to all forms of sexual assault. According to Rape Crisis, more than half a million adults are sexually assaulted in England + Wales each year and only 15% of those who experience such violence choose to report it to the police.

“It’s raising awareness and letting audiences know that if something were to happen, they can report it on site, This is something we should be talking about at festivals. We want people to look out for each other.” says Renae Brown, campaign manager at the AIF.

For more info head to http://aiforg.com/initiatives/saferspacesatfestivals/

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Grahame Farmer

Grahame Farmer’s love affair with electronic music goes back to the mid-90s when he first began to venture into the UK’s beloved rave culture, finding himself interlaced with some of the country’s most seminal club spaces. A trip to dance music’s anointed holy ground of Ibiza in 1997 then cemented his sense of purpose and laid the foundations for what was to come over the next few decades of his marriage to the music industry.