The Australian Festival Association has partnered with UNSW Sydney to improve training in harm-reduction techniques for staff working at festival events.
Festivals are popular occasions for fun and entertainment, but they also carry heightened safety risks such as sexual harassment, assault and drug-related illness. The recurrence of these risks has led to a call out from government for stronger regulations in the industry.
The Australian Festival Association (AFA), a representative body for the music festival scene, was formed in 2018 to elevate standards across the industry and align evidence-based practices with government policy requirements.
“The music festival industry provides enormous social and cultural benefits and contributes significantly to the economy. It’s important to preserve this while ensuring the safety of all patrons,” said Mitchell Wilson, Managing Director, AFA.
As part of their strategic priorities, AFA collaborated with DanceWize NSW to design and deliver the harm-reduction training program PartySafe. The program aims to educate festival staff on drug and alcohol intoxication and sexual violence reporting procedures.
However, there has been little evidence on the efficacy of such programs. Prompted by this gap in data, UNSW has conducted a process and outcome evaluation of AFA’s PartySafe training program. The evaluation was informed by survey data, field observations, existing police and event medical records, and security incident registers. UNSW researchers, Law & Justice's Associate Professor Phillip Wadds and his team, have assessed the impact of training on staff knowledge and confidence to intervene in situations of harm or potential harm.
The research conducted by UNSW is the start of an ongoing effort to educate festival staff and patrons about how to manage situations that can result in harm. The evaluation will also provide feedback on factors that may limit the efficacy of harm reduction efforts, including the physical design and lay-out of event spaces, on-site and digital messaging to patrons around the availability of services and where/how to access them, and the presence of police and security.
To learn more visit UNSW’s Innovation Community’s website.
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