Festival Research Project

Final Report

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In 2017, The Falls Festival was invited by Dr Bianca Fileborn and Dr Phillip Wadds to participate in a pilot research study into sexual assault at music festivals.

This pilot project aimed to establish a research base in this area by investigating patron experiences and perceptions of sexual assault, harassment and safety at music festivals in Australia.

Falls welcomed the opportunity to be involved in this important research. It should be noted that while participants for the survey were recruited from Falls Festival patrons in attendance, the survey asked participants about their perceptions of sexual violence and safety at music festivals in general, i.e., these findings are not specific to the Falls Festival.

Over the past five years, the Falls team have worked tirelessly with a number of community groups, experts, educators, emergency services groups and health organisations to develop education programs for staff and patrons alike in an attempt to stamp out unacceptable and offensive behaviours. We acknowledge the responsibilities all festivals have in influencing and effecting social & cultural change.

We have been working closely with various sexual assault support services in each state, running training programs for our managers and staff so they are equipped to deal with incidences of sexual assault, and engaged trained sexual assault counsellors on site for the duration of the festival to make the reporting process more comfortable for anyone who experiences this.

Falls has been working with the Your Choice campaign to educate patrons on site about the consequences of their choices and encourage them to call out anyone who is acting in an unacceptable manner, and immediately report them to festival staff or security.

Please find a summary of the pilot research study below. The Falls team are committed to presenting a safe and inclusive environment for our patrons to enjoy music, and will continue on our path of constant improvement.

By participating in this research, we hope that it gains the needed funding to broaden to a larger, more diverse information catchment.

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SAFETY AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE
AT AUSTRALIAN MUSIC FESTIVALS

DR BIANCA FILEBORN (Lecturer in Criminology, The University of Melbourne),
DR PHILLIP WADDS (Senior Lecturer in Criminology, UNSW)
PROFESSOR STEPHEN TOMSEN (Professor of Criminology, Western Sydney University)

This pilot project involved three phases:

1. Observations at the 2017-18 Falls Festival

2. An online survey conducted with 500 patrons of the 2017-18 Falls Festival

3. One-on-one interviews with 16 individuals who had experienced, or had been involved in responding to, sexual violence at music festivals across Australia.

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KEY FINDINGS – SURVEYS: 

The online survey addressed a range of issues relating to participant demographics, perceptions of safety and sexual violence at Australian music festivals, and alcohol and drug consumption at festival events. Key findings include:

• The vast majority of participants reported that they either ‘usually’ (61.5%) or ‘always’ (29%) feel safe at music festivals.

• A strong majority of participants indicated that they believe physical violence (92.8%, n=347), sexual harassment (95.1%, n=351) and sexual assault (88.6%, n=295) occur at music festivals.

• Participants were less certain as to whether homophobic or transphobic violence occur, with 61.2% (n=148) and 61.6% (n=141) of participants respectively responding that they thought these forms of violence happened at music festivals.

• Most participants believed that sexual harassment occurs ‘often’ (31.2%) or ‘very often’ (30.2%) at music festivals.

• Participants indicated they would be ‘extremely’ likely to report sexual assault (75.2%, n=215) and sexual harassment (62%, n=176) to the police. However, this does not reflect the actions of participants who had directly experienced these forms of violence.

• Almost all participants (99%) consumed alcohol at music festivals, while just under half (47.8%) consumed drugs. Previous research illustrates that music festival attendees use illicit drugs at a higher rate than the general population (Lim et al. 2010). However, rates of use for our sample are considerably lower than those identified in previous research. For example, 65.3% of participants in another Australian study reported using illicit drugs at festivals (Hughes & Moxham-Hall, 2017).

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KEY FINDINGS – INTERVIEWS:

Interviews were conducted with individuals who had experienced, or were involved in responding to, sexual violence that occurred at any Australian music festival. Participants were asked to reflect on the nature of their festival experience(s), the impacts of their experience(s) of sexual violence, what role the festival setting played in facilitating the violence, their experience(s) with reporting and disclosure, and reflections on steps festivals could take to both prevent and better respond to sexual violence. Key findings included:

• Participants reported diverse experiences of sexual violence, ranging from sexual harassment (e.g., verbal comments) through to actions that may constitute sexual assault.

• Groping and other forms of sexual touching in crowded moshpit and performance areas was a common experience.

• Perpetrators were overwhelmingly, but not exclusively, men.

• Bystanders (other patrons) rarely intervened when sexual violence was occurring.

• Experiencing sexual violence of all kinds resulted in negative and often ongoing impacts, including hyper-vigilance, altered behavior at festivals, anxiety, and shock.

• Most participants did not report to police, security or festival staff. Those who did report typically recalled negative responses from authority figures, such as victim-blaming, not taking the report seriously, and/or a failure to take appropriate action.

• Participants viewed the male-dominated nature of the music industry as a contributing factor to sexual violence in festival spaces.

• Zero-tolerance policing of drugs and anti-social behavior deterred participants from reporting to police.

• Participants expressed the need for music festivals to introduce a range of policy and practice-based changes in order to better respond to and prevent sexual violence.

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KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

Festival policy and management:

1. Introduce clear protocols and consistent messaging about sexual violence, including consequences for perpetrators.

2. Increase the number of female police and security staff working on-site.

3. Develop multiple avenues for reporting sexual violence at festivals and ensuring all staff are adequately trained to receive and respond to these reports.

4. Implement processes for the systematic documentation of incidents of sexual violence.

5. Follow through on reports with feedback to victim-survivors.

6. Implement the provision of on-site access to appropriate support services.

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Environment:

1. Provision of quiet ‘chill out’ spaces.

2. Ensure security and police are distributed throughout festival spaces, including regular patrols or emergency contact points in camping grounds.

3. Introduce section markers or signposting in camping grounds to improve way finding.

4. Enhance lighting, particularly in isolated areas such as camping grounds.

5. Ensure signage establishing behavioural standards is clearly visible throughout all spaces at festival.

6. Introduce clear and consistently identifiable markers to note the location of security staff in and around performance spaces.

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Cultural change:

1. Continued efforts to make festival line-ups more gender equitable and diverse.

2. Encouragement of pro-social behavior, such as bystander intervention.

3. Encouragement of an ethic of care among festival patrons.

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The full report can be accessed HERE 

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2019/20 FESTIVAL DATES

Lorne VIC: 28 Dec · 29 Dec · 30 Dec · 31 Dec
Marion Bay TAS: 29 Dec · 30 Dec · 31 Dec
Byron Bay NSW: 31 Dec · 01 Jan · 02 Jan
Fremantle WA: 04 Jan · 05 Jan

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EARLYBIRD PRESALE

Register for the Earlybird Presale
Early Bird tickets on sale 9am Wed 10 July local time
Visa Checkout is the payment method available for Early Bird Presale,

sign up here.

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YOUR CHOICE

Falls Festival is a proud partner and supporter of Your Choice,
working to create a safer and more enjoyable live gathering environment for everyone.

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Follow #FALLSFESTIVAL
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AMNPLIFY – DB