D'you come to many festivals?
One of my first. I'm loving the vibe.
- Pretty much all of them. - All of them?
Splendour, Falls...
Good line-up. Good vibe, good crowd.
This is my fourth this summer.
- I just pierced my nipple. - Just today? - Just before.
- Shout out... - Yay!
For many people, summer is festival season.
A chance to see some bands with your mates.
But today I'm not here for the music, I want to ask some festival punters
about a darker side of going to a gig.
Have you guys ever been groped at a festival, or a gig, or a club?
Like the arse grab?
- 100 times. - Every time we go out.
Yeah, it happens all the time, when you're with a girl...
Every single woman here has been groped at a club or at a gig?
100 percent.
I've seen it before, like all the time,
people just get heaps fucked up and do stupid shit.
They get taken advantage of cos they're just...
out of their minds and the guys can see that.
Just cos I'm half naked doesn't mean you can touch me...
It doesn't give you the right to do that but...
This summer there were a spate of sexual assault reports
at festivals around Australia.
People are at gigs to enjoy music.
There is no acceptable place to sexually assault someone.
This is the same thing that's been happening
since I started going into mosh pits
when I was young and there's been no improvement whatsoever.
It makes me deeply sad and frustrated.
When I found at I was going to Falls I was really excited.
I was 16 when I went.
That festival was my first mosh pit.
Trying to get into that mosh pit was a bit scary.
The number of people and the noise of the people...
Even on your way through, guys would be groping you all the time
and rubbing up against you from behind
and you just kind of push them away and not make a big fuss.
One guy behind me got more and more persistent
and ended up hugging me from behind.
He was about 40 and I remember him saying
"It's all right, me and my brother can't help ourselves,
"we really like young girls like you, you're so beautiful."
I was kind of like resisting and trying to push and it was all pretty tight.
And he ended up putting his hand down my skirt
and putting his fingers inside me.
I think I sort of blanked out.
It was pretty, like, traumatic.
I remember thinking at the time
"I don't know what to do. What if he gets angry?"
You feel so vulnerable, though,
cos you're still surrounded by so many people and it's like,
am I safer in numbers like this or am I more at risk
cos who else around you could be about to do this?
Tamara has never told anyone about her experience.
She's now 27 and a lawyer.
I think I sort of blocked it out and tried just not to think about it
and didn't actually even define it or think of it as assault
until I thought back and realised,
oh, there's actually this huge incident that I've never realised
how to take my relationship with the world and was so shocked.
Tamara's story was just one of more than a dozen similar stories
women sent to me when I posted a call-out on social media.
Katie Pearson is a Melbourne DJ and coordinator of Listen,
a group that advocates for gender equality
in the music industry across Australia.
I've only come across 2 women who said "It's never happened to me."
And I talk to hundreds of women constantly in the music industry.
A lot of men just don't understand the issue
and some of it's just really blatant disregard of the issue,
like they don't want to believe it.
I just say to them "Basically it happens
to every female I know at least once in her life
and generally multiple times.
...across the Australasia region.
Knowing my own situation,
I've experienced it probably at least 50 times.
Really bad kind of experience I had with it,
I was about 21.
I was walking through the nightclub with a friend
and a man very very swiftly stuck his hand up my skirt
and inserted a finger into my vagina.
For the past 2 years Katie has been working
with the Victorian government-funded taskforce
looking at how we can stop sexual assaults at gigs.
She found out most live music venues have no policy in place
to deal with reports of sexual assault
and staff usually have no training, even managers and security guards.
Often they won't do anything about it and they'll just say
"I didn't see it happen so it's his word against your word."
Why do you think you didn't confront him?
It's scary cos you're alone and it's like...
If I felt uncomfortable I'd 100% report it but yeah, I...
If it was that bad I'd go to the cops...
If you don't look out for us they don't really do anything,
they just laugh it off.
It's his word against her word.
But people across the music industry are taking a stand
and calling for all gig-goers and musicians to do the same.
No!
We got just so fed up.
All these bad things happen at people's shows and yet
and they know about it and don't say anything.
We're very loud about it and we look at people
and if we see it happening we call it out.
We started this campaign to bring together artists
to create a clear message about our stance on the abuse and assaults
that continuously arise at shows.
When you're at a gig
don't be an idiot
Don't be a dickhead
It takes one person to ruin a show
but it also takes one person to change the culture.
The hashtag #ittakesone came from
the phrase "It takes one person to ruin an entire show"
but in a positive sense it takes one person to stand up to make change
and talk about what's going on
and that one person can spark a whole movement.
If that happens to you at Laneway
call 1800 Laneway and someone will help you.
The hotline 1800 Laneway is something that we started this year
and it really came out of a conversation with Camp Cope.
Someone in our event control centre who answers the call
assesses the severity of the situation
and can engage or deploy staff on the ground
to help with that situation.
We've only got one call so far about someone who felt
they were experiencing inappropriate behaviour
but that was quickly resolved.
I think it's great that they've launched this
and I love how passionate Camp Cove are with this stuff
but staff can only do so much with that information
and unless every person working at that festival
is equipped with the knowledge of how to identify problematic behaviour
and how to respond appropriately to report those behaviours,
then I think we're going to keep experiencing the same issue
of people reporting things and not really getting anywhere.
Katie believes there could be a solution on the horizon.
In an Australian first the Victorian government announced
last week that they're funding a pilot program
developed by Katie's taskforce to prevent sexual assault.
It's aimed at giving staff proper training
and educating live music goers.
Ideally, once we've rolled this out
we would love to be able to show this work
to other states around Australia.
I would love for all people to be able to head out to live music
and to that venue and feel like they belong in that venue,
feel safe to express themselves in whatever way they like
on the dance floor without feeling like someone's going
to come in their space and make that a very uncomfortable space for them.