In a welcome step forward in the battle to both combat sexual harassment and support victims, St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival has teamed with ‘ItTakesOne‘ campaigners and Melbourne all-stars Camp Cope to launch a festival hotline for reporting incidents of abuse.
Camp Cope, who begin the Australian leg of Laneway in Sydney this weekend, launched their campaign in September last year by highlighting the importance of bystanders, specifically men, in calling out aggressive behaviour at shows. Their first video featured big local acts such as The Jezebels, Courtney Barnett, Frenzal Rhomb and The Bennies.
Now, Laneway have jumped on the campaign and launched a hotline for every leg of the festival.
Attendees who see or experience abuse, harassment or generally disrespectful behaviour can call 1800 LANEWAY (1800 526 3929), and an operator will be on the ground to help.
And for a pseudo-sequel to that first video, Camp Cope have joined with fellow Laneway artists Ella Thompson and Julia Jacklin. As Jacklin says in the video:
“Remember when you come through the gates that Laneway and other music festivals and music venues are supposed to be places that people feel safe at and they feel included and they feel like they can have fun without getting touched or getting pushed around.”“We come to these places because we want to avoid the bullshit outside so just don’t bring the bullshit inside. Just be a good person.”
And while combating violence and harassment is always important, this campaign comes at a pertinent time for abuse at music festivals: only last month, police investigated three incidents of sexual assault at Falls.
You can watch the video announcement below, and on ya Camp Cope and Laneway:
Source: Triple J.
Photo: Matt Warrell, Camp Cope/Facebook.
