This week Esperance have been using their social platforms to call on Folk Festivals across the UK to display and implement safeguarding and anti-harassment policies.
Esperance is a grassroots collective of people who wish to discuss and address gender equality issues in the English folk scene.
We are thankful that they have raised this issue. We too believe that everyone has the right to feel safe when attending, playing at, working or volunteering at a festival and we are more than happy to share our policy on this matter as well as information on how to contact us should anyone encounter harassment at our event.
Thanks again to Esperance for sharing resources to help us do this. Our policy is below and also available on the Festival Information section of the website.

Aim

At Manchester Folk Festival we acknowledge that harassment and sexual harassment have potentially serious, long-term effects on mental health, well-being and ability to work. This policy aims to promote a safe, inclusive and respectful environment for staff, volunteers, musicians and audiences alike, regardless of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation or any other personal attribute. Behaviour which makes people feel threatened or unsafe is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.

What is harassment?

Harassment is behaviour which is unwelcome, is based on someone’s personal attributes (such as gender) and could reasonably be regarded as offensive, humiliating or intimidating to that person. It includes (but is not limited to): – sexual harassment such as unwanted touching, or pressure for sexual activity, belittling or excluding a person because of their gender, making decisions on the basis of a person’s acceptance or rejection of sexual advances; – using racist language; – undermining someone because of a personal attribute such as race, disability or sexual orientation.

Appropriate conduct

We require all audiences, staff, volunteers, musicians and any working at or attending our festival to commit to the following:
– To behave respectfully towards others;
– Not to harass staff, volunteers, musicians or audience members;
– If someone tells you to stop behaving in a particular way, listen to them and stop engaging in that behaviour;
– Not to victimise someone for challenging your behaviour.

What to do if you encounter harassment

If you encounter harassment at any of our festival events and feel unable to deal with it yourself, you should report it to our General Manager (information below), who will investigate. We will take appropriate steps to address the harassment in line with our company (English Folk Expo – producer of Manchester Folk Festival) Safeguarding and Harassment policies.

Name: Kate Kyle
Contact details: kate@englishfolkexpo.com
Phone Number: +44 (0)1706 962 885