Join today and you can easily save your favourite articles, join in the conversation and comment, plus select which news your want direct to your inbox.
Join today and you can easily save your favourite articles, join in the conversation and comment, plus select which news your want direct to your inbox.
Laneway Festival has launched a hotline encouraging concertgoers to report instances of abuse and harassment at the national tour.
The hotline, 1800 LANEWAY (1800 526 3929), allows attendees who've seen or experienced any disrespectful behaviour to seek help from an operator who will be on the ground at each leg of the festival.
We want Laneway Festival to be fun and safe space for everyone. If you see or experience any disrespectful behaviour at #Laneway2017 please call our hotline 1800LANEWAY to report it.
While James Packer may have been averse to having his photo taken during his recent sojourn aboard the family tinnie the Arctic P in Bora Bora, some of his crew are not quite so camera shy. Andrew Hornery investigates.
A Swedish women's-only festival is on the cards after the country's biggest music festival was scrapped following rape allegations and reports of dozens of sexual assaults.
This original promo, in which the pop star alerted fans to an 8,000-ticket giveaway to her gigs from the retail giant, was pulled for the singer yelling at her pet poodle to 'chase some koalas'.
We want Laneway Festival to be fun and safe space for everyone. If you see or experience any disrespectful behaviour at #Laneway2017 please call our hotline 1800LANEWAY to report it.
"Regardless of anything - age, gender, sexual preference, race, anything - you deserve to feel safe and comfortable while enjoying live music," Camp Cope singer Georgia Maq said in a video accompanying the announcement.
Melbourne band Camp Cope have led the campaign. Photo: YouTube
"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 without getting pushed around," Sydney singer Julia Jacklin added.
Last year, Camp Cope launched a campaign named #ItTakesOne aimed at fighting sexual harassment at gigs and ensuring their concerts remained safe spaces for women, after a spate of incidents at gigs in Melbourne and Sydney where female concertgoers were physically assaulted.
Advertisement
The campaign drew support from high-profile artists including Courtney Barnett, Jen Cloher, Frenzal Rhomb, The Jezabels and other local musicians and industry names.
In a Facebook post, the band called on male concertgoers to contribute to the campaign, seeing as women were largely the victims of abusive incidents.
Crowds at the Sydney leg of Laneway last year. Photo: Wolter Peeters
"It shouldn't solely be the responsibility of women to fix the problem," they wrote.
"We feel it's important for men to speak too, and speak out against other men's behaviour and be positive role models to other men.
"It's up to the artists, the audience, the venue, everybody - to make a show safe."
The Laneway Festival, which launched today in Brisbane, continues across the capital cities until February 5, with acts including Tame Impala, Nick Murphy (aka Chet Faker) and international guests Car Seat Headrest (US), Aurora (Norway) and Nao (UK).