How The Hell Do We Get These Harassment Incidents To Stop At Gigs?

When you think about how many instances of sexual harassment and assault have happened at gigs recently, things can look pretty bleak for the human race in 2016. From someone at Spiderbait urinating on a punter and a woman getting ejaculated on at last year's St Kilda Festival, to Abbe May getting asked to "show us ya tits" at a Peter Garrett show, to High Tension and Luca Brasi's tough stances against non-consensual touching at their gigs, it's pretty obvious something must be done to stop us having to read the same bloody headline time and again.

But what?

We spoke with Luca Brasi's Tyler Richardson after the incident this Saturday, who told us that calling the perpetrators out, just like they and numerous bands before them had done, is the first step.

"Keeping this in the dark allows perpetrators to continue their behaviour and victims to feel unsafe to speak up. We are planning to co-ordinate with venues and their security before every show, including access to security footage and easy contact to us and our team for contact should someone feel unsafe," Richardson says.

It is archaic, it's gone, it's over - the days of a free-for-all in the pit are gone and bands won't stand for it.

"The model of bands such as Modern Baseball with a hotline direct to their tour manager is fantastic and definitely a viable avenue."

TheMusic.com.au also spoke with Helen Marcou, the co-founder of SLAM (Save Live Australia's Music) and the person at the helm of a Victorian task force that aims to address sexual harassment and assault in venues and festivals in conjunction with LISTEN, organisers of the annual LISTEN Conference.

Marcou says they've been working tirelessly since the task force was launched last year to design policy — and a pilot to test out — for venues, so they have a protocol to follow when creating safer spaces.

"We're hoping to enact some real cultural change through a number of ways - through looking at policy, training, education, legislation, but also with the training having a really comprehensive training module. A consumer campaign will get the message out and help people and venues understand what to do about an incident when it happens.

"How to define [assault] is really important - it's really difficult, a lot of the venues are caught out because often the perpetrators get kicked out and then the security guards really don't know what to do after that, so working on a general and broad protocol that venues can sign up to that also mitigates their liability and creates safer spaces."

We do not want our shows to be a place that isn't safe, where this horrifying behaviour does not have severe consequences.

Though it'll initially be an opt-in program for venues, Marcou says that "once that pilot has been done and assessed, eventually we hope to roll it out into the whole state and then hopefully nationally will be really great". She posits it's important to let bands like Luca Brasi know that "someone's actually working on policy".

"Though it's an all-licensed-venues problem, we're taking the lead because we also have a duty of care to our performers. To make sure that they're safe in their work spaces as well and their creative spaces … It is archaic, it's gone, it's over - the days of a free-for-all in the pit are gone and bands won't stand for it. The other really important thing to come out of it is, once women and LGBTQI feel comfortable and safe within music spaces, it also creates a broader participation in music as well."

Richardson thinks Marcou and the task force's work is a "huge positive" and letting punters "know what they can do, what their options are and to know that they have the team and resources available to them to have these people prosecuted" is a great start.

Luca Brasi want to ensure their shows — indeed, all shows — are safe spaces, and want to "aide those who have been affected to feel comfortable to speak up". Marcou echoes this need for victims to have a safe space to speak out about their experiences: "This is something we always emphasise - the voice of victims. Believe people.

"Big takeaway message from all of this - believe the victims when they speak. The fact that we have 400 case studies that range from abuse, harassment, assault and even rape within licensed venues shows it's a systematic problem. It's not isolated to pockets, it's across the pocket."

Richardson agrees, adding, "This issue is far more widespread than in just the punk/heavy community. This behaviour definitely calls for widespread cultural change, which 100% is prevalent in this community, but in the examples of crimes such as domestic violence, rape and sexual assault, these rates are insanely high also outside of the music community.

"Not one case is acceptable outside or within music. We are horrified that music can be a platform for this behaviour."

Richardson urges men to "[make] other men accountable for their actions".

"We do not want our shows to be a place that isn't safe, where this horrifying behaviour does not have severe consequences. Male entitlement exists everywhere, we want music to be a movement to stamp it out, for respect to rule in shows and the outside world."