Power 50 - #48: Helen Marcou

In the lead-up to International Women’s Day, renowned music community activist, Bakehouse Studios co-owner Helen Marcou was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll For Women for, among other things, co-founding Save Live Australia’s Music (SLAM) and helping organise a 20,000-person-strong rally that marched on Melbourne’s Parliament House in support of live music.

In July, Marcou then headed a six-person panel to launch joint initiative, Your Choice; a much-needed “industry supported campaign to address the growing cultural issues around behaviour and lack of personal accountability within Australian venues and event spaces.”

Working with the Victorian police and the Victorian Sexual Assault Force, of which Marcou is also a member, Your Choice seeks to utilise substantial industry resources in a concentrated attempt to reduce incidents of violence, discrimination and sexual assault at music events and mass gatherings. Since then support has been massive, with hundreds of artists, venues, festivals, organisations, labels and media outlets taking up the Your Choice banner.

Marcou also took that creed to BIGSOUND, where she moderated the Every Space Should Be A Safe Space panel with Secret Service MD Stacey Piggott, Mellum PR director and founder Udaravi Widanapathirana and LISTEN co-ordinator Elspeth Scrine.