In Conversation with Girls Against
Today Ella and Eve are joined on the podcast with Girls Against, a a non-profit organisation standing up against sexual assault & misogyny in the UK live music scene. The episode discusses the ways in which venues can create a safer space for artists and gig-goers alike, the origins of Girls Against the moments of joy that exist within their volunteer work.
Hello and welcome to the Comics Youth x Where are the Girlbands Safe Spaces podcast, a space for discussions with organisations and individuals who are creating safe spaces within the North West, with a focus on Merseyside.
Something that we often find when discussing safe spaces with local organisations is that it is hard to know where to begin in order to make their space a safer one. Often venues, events and organisations have all the right intentions but not necessarily the know-how on what they are preventing, and how to do the work to create an inclusive and safe space logistically. The people we are chatting to today are the answer to this, as they provide training and insight to venues that they need to ensure they are safe, accessible and inclusive spaces!
Girls Against are a non-profit organisation standing up against sexual assault & misogyny in the UK live music scene. They do this by building valuable educational resources and providing training and input on how to create safer spaces & inclusivity. What is fantastic about Girls Against is the wide range of people and places involved – they work all over the UK with people from all over the UK of different identities and experiences. This is fantastic in ensuring that they have input from multiple perspectives within the resources they create, and gives them more insight on how safe spaces can be created across the UK. We have had the pleasure of chatting to Girls Against before, either personally or through being on panel discussions together – each time we meet with them we learn something new, hearing fresh experiences and perspectives as they constantly evolve, working incredibly hard to push for a safer UK. They are an organisation we refer venues to when they come to us for advice on how they can improve, so it is a real pleasure to have them on the show today to share their knowledge with you!
Trigger warnings for today’s episode are mentions of misogyny, harassment and assault.
Interview with Girls Against:
Ella:
So we have the absolute pleasure today of being joined by Bea and Ciara from Girls Against. How are you both doing today?
Bea and Ciara:
Yeah good thank you! How are you?
Ella:
Good thank you! Very excited to be chatting with you. I’m also with Eve which is very exciting! My other half has made it to the podcast today (laughing)
Eve:
Yes it’s me Ella’s lady wife who’s also on the podcast today. (laughing) Yeah I’d like to say hello to Comics Youth again today, I haven’t been in the last couple of episodes because Ella’s been doing absolute bits like taking care of the podcast while I’ve been slaving away at university but yeah. This is a really exciting podcast and I was really keen to chat to Girls Against again actually because we’ve had a couple conversations before we’ve met at various times. I’m really excited to chat more about what you guys do because I think it’s amazing.
Ella:
Fantastic stuff. Okay something me and Eve always like to do is get started with an origin story, so it would be lovely to hear a bit about your personal involvement with Girls Against as well as the origins of Girls Against as an organisation.
Bea:
Yeah sure. So I guess I can start as one of the founders. I think the passion for Girls Against came from a love of kind of indie music originally. So like aged 15 going to a lot of gigs and obviously like that being a drive of mine, but then the kind of other side is like experiencing some not great things at those places as well and not feeling 100% comfortable, and we’re actually a kind of group of twitter friends originally. So we had a little group chat on twitter and we were just talking about things to do with gigs and a lot of us were saying similar things about how we didn’t feel safe at a lot of gigs and that kind of just led us to be like shall we set up a page to support other people who are in a similar position and have had similar experiences and that’s kind of how Girls Against was born we just didn’t really know the scale of what we were creating because yeah within like seventy two hours it was just blown up to something we never expected. So yeah, that was the start I guess right at the beginning.
Eve:
Yeah I always wanted to ask like in regards to that in the experience of like actually forming yourself as an organisation. Like I think it can be kind of hard to like stand up and say like I could, I could almost do a better job than you at this or I could tell you how to do something if that makes sense. Like especially as young women like you can often be made to feel like it’s not your place, do you know what I mean? So were you working in the music industry to any degree like prior to this? Like how did it feel like almost like legitimising it to something that you do full time if that makes sense or something that you have expertise in?
Bea:
Yeah. I don’t even think I’m at that point in my life now like it’s so true. I think when I was first setting up there wasn’t, there wasn’t any awareness that we were doing something that is like an expertise or like we’re offering a service that we know more about. It was more of a, kind of, I don’t want to say on a whim but it kind of was, it was like we should just do something and for us it was just setting up a social media page was that something, and I think we learned and grew into kind of experts in the field. But when we set up we were literally all 15/16 year olds who loved music, that was our level of expertise and I think we had to learn a lot just like on the spot. So when people say to me now, like oh well you’re an expert in the field, I’ m like I guess I am but for me it’s so DIY. Like it’s just I’ve learned everything I know just from being thrown into it really, which is a great experience because you really learn the most that way I think, but a scary one too.
Ella:
Super similar to how me and Eve came to Girlbands like we were just people who loved music, wanted to make music ourselves, had very similar experiences of going to like gigs that we loved but also like having unsafe experiences in those gigs too and feeling like there was more or there should be more but that we didn’t know how to access it or how to find the sort of safety and the networks that we wanted to see in our local scene. So we like again sort of similarly I guess on a whim made a page and it is interesting how much you learn like constantly with a page like this. And it was one of the questions I had because I think it’s been one of the key experiences of Girlbands for me and Eve has been like how much learning is involved. In terms of skills even you know like things like video editing like loads of things we never perceived ourselves as doing that we now do all the time, and I wondered maybe if you could share some of the learning experiences that you’ve had with us?
Bea:
Yeah. Yeah definitely. I mean for me it was like I never really think about this until…So I did a talk quite recently at a university and this was one of the like similar questions. So we had our website up at the back which is something that I developed over lockdown because I felt that we should have a better website. Never done any website creating other than maybe like my old Tumblr if that counts, and I just thought oh I’ve got time now I’ll try it out. And someone asked me like oh how did you get the money to like pay a website developer because they’re really expensive and I was like oh I did the website, and it’s those sort of things where I’m like if I’d looked at myself like five years ago, six years ago, when I was setting it up and I thought oh I’m going to be developing a website that’s like good and functional (laughing) and no one taught me how to do that it’s just like complete trial and error that’s like one of the skills but I think mainly for us it’s been like media stuff. We really, for the first year like two years were just mind blowing with the amount of media and press coverage we got, and no one trains you how to go on the news, no one trains you how to like respond to press enquiries. Like I’d be out with friends and getting phone calls form like Channel 5 and it’s like no one. You’re not prepared for that sort of thing so they’re the sort of things now that I value so much as a skill because I feel like I have been had that experience of being media trained almost but just through sheer kind of development in our own campaign I guess, yeah.
Ciara:
Yeah I would like agree. I’ve, I’ve done a lot less than Bea because I’ve only been with Girls Against for like just under a year I think. But definitely just sort of getting used to things like that sort of coverage and attention that Girls Against get and just trying to respond to that. I’d say also just sort of like I think I’ve learned sort of to know how to respond to people. People will come to us when they have experienced something sort of at gigs or at clubs and sort of expect us to help in some kind of way. Obviously that’s not really what we do, we can’t offer like actual support because we’re not really trained for that, but just knowing how to respond to people in a, I guess like a helpful and a productive way and pointing them in the direction of these various resources that I didn’t know about myself before I started working with Girls Against. I think that’s been really helpful, finding out about those resources and being able to pass them on to other people.
Ella:
Yeah that’s really interesting actually and I guess like something I’d be curious about is how you look after your own wellbeing with like the messages and stuff that you get. Because obviously like, if you set up, or you join an organisation like Girls Against because you have sort of lived experience of these sort of things and you know it’s important to you, it can be even more impactful if you’re dealing with other people’s lived experiences especially if they’re coming to you first hand when they’ve experienced something. How would you say you manage to sort of look after yourselves while also facilitating a safe space for other people?
Ciara:
I think there’s just like, there’s sort of, always just an understanding that sometimes it can be too much and you never have to get involved with anything if you don’t want to or if you’re comfortable. Like there’s never any expectation like oh you have to come and do this thing, you have to be on this call, you have to reply to this person, it’s sort of like just whoever feels comfortable. And we had like a training session a few months ago. One of the volunteers sort of works with victims and has a bit more like formal training, so they did a sort of session with us but it was sort of like you know if you’re uncomfortable at any time you can leave. They were really sweet actually and sent me a message afterwards sort of saying like oh like I hope you’re okay and if you need to talk about anything I’m here. So I think we’re all just pretty good at checking in on each other which I think is like a really nice thing and really important.
Bea:
Yeah. Yeah definitely. I think that at the beginning it was a super difficult thing to manage and your wellbeing kind of like, you don’t really notice the impact that it’s having until it’s too much, and I think that’s why now as newer reps are coming through that is our main priority to be like yeah, as Ciara was saying, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to and you don’t have to respond to things if you don’t feel like you can, because you have to prioritise yourself in that situation as well.
Eve:
So in terms of your infrastructure, so you have like different sectors in different parts of the UK like how did that sort of, at what point did you expand from your original team and how does the volunteering process work and stuff like that. What’s your, can you describe your infrastructure?
Bea:
Yeah we’ve had a bit of a journey with that I guess. It’s been like 5 founders, and then we got super overwhelmed with the amount of work so then we recruited like 70 reps, like that was the kind of scale we were working with when we first started and it was like almost more work for us because we had so many people write in who wanted to volunteer. So we then had to sort through all of them, but that’s what showed to us like the passion that everyone else had for the cause and in some ways it was really amazing to see so many people writing in about how much they loved the campaign, erm. Obviously 70 reps got way too much (laughing) like to manage and we started to do international stuff as well which just wasn’t, you know, right for us at the time. So yeah we kind of scaled down and people naturally sort of drop off as well and we were left with a select few kind of around the UK in different areas. We try to have a balance so a few South, a few North and I think there’s 13 of us now? And that feels like, yeah, the right number, the right number of us definitely.
Eve:
Yeah some quite dramatic changes there but definitely like interesting to see how you’ve like developed as an organisation and sort of found your feet almost and like found what works for you and what can also like maximise the efficiency of the work that you’re doing like maximise the amount of support that you’re able to give and like manage the team. So that’s really cool.
Bea:
Yeah definitely. I think as well having like 14 reps who are like really dedicated and like really want to work hard and are passionate for the cause like I’ll take any day over 70 international reps where it’s like you’re not going to be able to have that relationship with all of them. It just becomes a lot more personal when you have a team as we do now which is exactly what we need really.
Eve:
Yeah, absolutely. And I was going to ask as well how is it that venues access your training and how is it that people access the work that you do? How is it you operate in that sense?
Bea:
A lot of it’s been through outreach so we’ve had kind of like the first three or four years of us building connections with certain venues and keeping in touch with them really. And also like through promoters, so if promoters are putting on gigs at certain venues then we’ll get that venue involved. But yeah like a lot of our time was spent sending emails round to every venue that we could, and now like we want to pick that back up again and like work with more venues. This year obviously with Covid it was difficult enough, we didn’t want them as well want to email them like have you done this even though you’re hardly surviving? So that’s something that we definitely want to focus on because venues who are passionate about making change will always be really open to making changes and working with us, so.
Ella:
Definitely. I think it’s so interesting that you have such like a wide spread across the UK because for me and Eve like we work in such a location specific way, like we’re so Merseyside based in everything that we do. So it’s interesting that you are talking on similar issues to us but like so far spread across the UK and I guess like I’d be curious to know maybe like if you’ve found differences between different scenes? Like, are there things, you know where, that have really stood out to you? Maybe about like, I guess like the difference between bigger cities, smaller cities? Like basically how like the scene itself impacts the training that you give?
Bea:
Yeah that’s interesting. I think I’ve noticed less about like the location, maybe more about the types of spaces. I think like independent venues are always the ones who are willing to make those changes even though they’re the ones that get like the least funding and all that sort of stuff, and the bigger chain venues are the ones that don’t reply to the emails. I guess that’s kind of common across most places that we work in. Erm, I mean I’m London based so I guess my perspective is a bit warped. I’ve never even been to some of the places that we have reps in so, I couldn’t even. Like I’ve worked in Scotland quite a lot because that’s where the other founders are so I can only really speak across those places. Like our Northern reps do so much work across that area that I’m probably not even as aware of to be honest (laughing).
Ciara:
I mean I’m in Manchester but obviously we’re in quite opposite locations really (laughing). But I agree with what you say in that I don’t really see like a difference like regionally, I think as you say it’s to do with like the smaller venues are the ones that will tend to actually come to us and they want to make changes. Whereas it’s like those bigger venues they’re not really willing to reach out and actually make those kind of changes so it’s kind of harder to actually have any contact with them. But yeah like I think obviously the good thing about having reps like all over the country is sort of if opportunities come up in various places it can be like oh we’ve had a message from this person and they’re based here, can anyone get over to that venue? And it’s like usually there’ll be like one of us who’s like nearby (laughing) like oh yeah I’ll sort of do that. But it does tend to be these like smaller venues or smaller bands or artists who like want us to have a presence at their gigs and things like that.
Ella:
Yeah it’s so interesting that. Like it makes complete sense that regardless of location the same issues crop up in gig spaces. Like that’s been super evident to us especially through lockdown like any conversation we’ve had with anyone (laughing) who’s like part of any music scene anywhere, like we’ve had conversations with people from the US and it’s like could be word for word someone’s lived experience in Liverpool.
That’s so interesting about independent venues as well and I guess something that we think is really important with venues is like a transparency in terms of safety. Like as an audience member if something goes wrong you want to feel like you’re able to contact the venue and get a response. So I guess that’s even part of it in terms of like how you’re saying big corporate chains don’t reply to your emails. I’m sure if someone experienced something in their space they likely wouldn’t respond to their emails either.
Bea:
Yeah, yeah that’s true. I think it’s about yeah like independent venues that are already working quite like on the ground. They have that connection with their audience and they’re listening to what’s going on in the scene, then yeah they’re probably more aware of campaigns like ourselves. Whereas the ones that are like already thinking that ah we’ve already been running for this long in this kind of way like why would be change, they’re probably more unaware of what’s going on and then as you say not as willing to kind of listen to people, and maybe they think that there’s kind of too many people for them to listen to the one person who’s like you should do this! Which is a shame and I think yeah hopefully that changes at some point.
Eve:
Is there like, a sort of common thing that you come across in most venues that are like issues that they have to address? Do some have a total lack of policies for example? Is there a really common complaint? I remember when me and Ella were talking with some of our audience about things that made them feel unsafe in gig venues sometimes there were loads of comments about male bouncers and that sort of thing. Is it more to do with, I mean it’s interesting that you talk about independent venues and stuff, is it usually more of an issue with people or personnel. Like what do you sort of commonly find having worked with different venues?
Bea:
It’s interesting because so I work, obviously we do Girls Against on a volunteer basis all of us, so my work-work that I do is I work at a live music venue in South London so I kind of see it from both sides. We would never kind of go to venues with a sort of “why don’t you have this in place? You definitely should have this in place!” because a lot of venues that have like worked up from the ground and really like struggled to get a lot of funding, we want to be more sort of helpful in that sense. We want to be like, because a lot of venues when we go in are ultimately like well yeah we’ve wanted to do this we just don’t know how and I think that’s like the main thing about it. And I think those bigger venues that have the resources and have the funding are almost like I don’t want to say lazy but like there’s potential for them to have done something. Which is why it’s always nice for us to see independent venues, and the people running those, being really passionate about like changing. But yeah like there’s still other issues like most security that are hired as you say like are normally all-men and that does have an impact. However safe the venue is if there’s no one visible for someone to report something to then that’s where the problem lies and that’s what we’d kind of really suggest for a lot of venues is having a clear, visible policy. Not just a policy but one that people know that if they report it, it will be dealt with sensitively, and it is okay to report it because a lot of the time people won’t report it because all they see is one big security guard or a really busy bar and they’re like I don’t want to kind of trouble anyone. So that’s really important and that can be done in any space just having that, posters around even. So that’s the sort of thing that we want to see.
Ella:
That is honestly so helpful. That was one of the things that I was going to ask you. Obviously it’s more complex than a kind of tick box exercise of things people can do and then it’s fine, but little ones that venues can take and that’s definitely a really good one and it comes back to that communication thing I think of feeling you can have a conversation with the venue as someone who accesses the space. But it’s really helpful to think like visibility I guess is a really important thing. And I wondered as well maybe in terms of policy, is that something that you feel has to be quite different depending on the type of space that the venue has?
Bea:
Yeah. I mean I think you, there’s no policy fits all. I think this is what we’ve learned over the time we’ve been doing Girls Against like we can’t create a policy that’s going to work in every space ever. There’s so many differences and I think like I even remember the panel that we were all on talking about this like people of different marginalised groups are going to want different policies and have different expectations of spaces and I think it does come down to like, well what I’ve learned from my own experience in the music industry is that it does come down to like the night that’s being put on and adapting a policy to that. Whether it’s a Queer night or a whether it’s a seated live-jazz night compared to like, a techno club night, like they’re all going to need different, different policies and different expectations so yeah definitely.
Ella:
I guess that that’s another real benefit of you having so many reps to your organisation is that you have so many different perspectives because I know that that’s probably the biggest piece of learning we’ve had around safe spaces is that people’s safe spaces contradict each other, so what’s safe for one person can be actively unsafe for another person. Do you find that like that’s something that’s helpful to you as an organisation having different voices within sort of setting up the training that you do for organisations?
Ciara:
Yeah I think, you know everyone’s sort of been through different things everyone sort of has these different perspectives. People have different ideas about what we can do, what training we can do, just yeah sort of things like that where it’s like someone will say something and you’ll be like oh I hadn’t thought of that and it’s because like even though we’re all like doing the same thing and are supporting the same cause it's like they’ve experienced it in a different way and in a different setting and I think like…Even things with like, obviously it started as Bea said as more to do with the Indie scene, and I think as the organisation’s grown now we’re sort of delving into more different scenes and I think having more people involved now means the different tastes and the different cultures that people are a part of, that allows us to have a different perspective as well.
Bea:
Yeah definitely, and that’s really important as well just like I remember we use to have, if something…We’ve had a few difficult situations let’s say over the last seven years. They’re bound to happen and what’s just helped us through those situations is being able to have a group of people there where we can put, this has happened, and everyone collectively is like, oh no, and then you can see different viewpoints on that whereas I might have sat at home on my own and spiralled about something. Someone in that group is like, oh well this means this, or, I can bring in my experience on something, and that’s so so valuable and we wouldn’t be able to write any sort of policy or training without those sort of things coming into a play as well. So yeah, I mean super important, definitely.
Eve:
Yeah, absolutely. What we were just saying before about how there’s no one size fits all policy, you’ve got to bear in mind venues can do as much as they can and work really hard to listen to their communities’ needs and you can get multiple perspectives as you were saying and try to serve those needs as best as they can but does your work appeal as much to gig-goers as it does to venues and organisers?
Bea:
I would say, I would say more I think. From, like, I think the initial pull from Girls Against was from music fans, people who go to gigs, people who, like that’s how our name was spread and I think it was only after that that we’ve started working more with venues and you know physical music entities I guess, I wouldn’t know what you call them. I guess the physical side has come later. I think it was always the gig-goers, it was always the artists at the beginning and artists would invite us to their shows rather than venues, it was kind of that dynamic and once we’d done that for a while, which was obviously amazing and it raised awareness but it was almost a natural progression to be like okay so now we’ve sat ourselves in these places, we’ve had this experience and we know that something needs to change still within the scene and like higher up than just the audience, and I think that’s, yeah, when we really started looking at that, which was maybe a few years in, a few years down the line. Yeah.
Ella:
Something I’d be really interested to know is basically like how you would suggest, especially like what we were talking about before in terms of, you know, if you’re someone who has experience of harassment and assault yourself, how you advice people who are working in venues to deal with situations in the moment, because I think that’s something we’re aware of is like, at the end of the day people in venues are people, I guess. Especially for independent venues and even corporate venues as well the people that they hire are just people at the end of the day and like, it can be a very overwhelming experience for someone to come with you and tell you that this has happened especially if you’re like, not a security guard, or you’re someone who maybe, it brings something up to you. Is there any advice you’d give to people about how to sort of manage the stress of the situation I guess in the moment and deal with things in a sensitive way.
Bea:
Yeah that’s hard, that’s hard. I think it’s something that as we’ve mentioned earlier, we were having people come to us with quite difficult things to read since we were like quite young, and I now am quite shocked at kind of, because it’s such a norm for people like us who work in this scene and work in dealing with these sort of incidents. Like people who work in venues maybe don’t have that sort of work experience. Like they may have had something happen to them, but they may not have seen the scale maybe that, as you say, can be quite triggering if they’re going in and then oh. Especially recently I think with like the increase of spiking and the impact on venues. I think it’s just about, again, having a procedure like writing down steps to follow so that if someone’s in that situation who may be uncomfortable but is then put in that situation out of, you know, emergency for example if someone had been spiked or something similar. Then, having steps written by someone who knows about and has had that experience. Not saying just us but you know other amazing campaigns like Good Night Out, they do great training. Like having those in place takes the pressure off a little bit off staff to make their own decision in that spur of the moment because, like you say, that can be really scary and often difficult for a lot of people. In terms of like advice just making sure there’s a good team dynamic, having people around you, working in a space where you feel comfortable yourself which obviously isn’t always possible but that’s the only advice. Like having a good support system so if you do deal with something that’s maybe a bit traumatic you are able to take a step back and that sort of thing if that’s what you need to do.
Ella:
Yeah, that makes complete sense, and on a complete flip of that question, something that we got asked on a panel discussion that I thought was really lovely was basically about like finding joy in the work that you do, and if there like are maybe some moments of joy you can share because obviously you know you’re dealing with something that can be very distressing, it’s a very serious thing, it can cause a lot of pain, but it would also be lovely to hear some things that have caused you pride and joy as well.
Ciara:
(Laughing) I think it was probably just nice knowing that we are hopefully making some kind of difference like with this platform and being able to do stuff like this where we’re just sort of talking about what we do and like getting sort of the word out there. Like you hope it is just making some kind of, I suppose there’s no way to really like tell what kind of impact we specifically might have had. Like there’s just no way to gage that. But sort of even if it’s one person who you know might have helped out by giving them certain advice or tips on how to deal with things. It’s like okay well hopefully I’ve helped at least one person, and I guess like that’s just what it’s about really just trying to help as many people as we can in whatever way even if it’s just that small thing of here’s some advice that no one else might have given you, here’s like some like, like coping mechanisms I suppose like things that someone might have not been told before. If we’re able to like offer things like that it feels worthwhile.
Bea:
Yeah to echo that I mean it’s interesting like when you talk about not being able to like measure that sort of thing I really feel that. But there’s a few moments that I can like remember, and most of them are like, quite early on when I was working like, maybe had a stall at a gig. As much as I love the work that we do now which is more professional and making more of an impact on policy and stuff, at the beginning, when we were just kind of young and we had a stall and people would come up to the stall and chat with us, which we still do but then I’d go in and join the gig. I’d go into the crowd and someone would come up to me, with glitter all over their face and they’d hold me and they’d be like, oh my god you run Girls Against! And I’d be like, yeah! And they’d tell me about how we’d like changed their life or we’d done something for them, and those moments like just don’t, you can’t beat them because it's just this complete random person recognising you and saying, you’ve helped me. So those sort of small things do just bring so much joy and make it so much worthwhile definitely.
Ella:
That’s so lovely and you know something that I wanted to say as well is that organisations like yours existing I think generally give a sense of hope, and also like a sense of safety in like, going to gigs, because you know there are people who are offering training and who are, you know, raising awareness of these things. I think especially like you were saying with the rise in spiking and you know, just dealing with sexism and the risks that exist, I think, having such a vocal organisation offer, you know the organisations that you do, even they are about things that are quite upsetting, I think there is joy in that even as someone just perceiving the work that you do because it is such a sense of community like you were saying that, you know, across the country, across venues, across different experiences there’s like a banding together and that you’re taking your time as volunteers to make spaces that are safer for everyone and not just for you and in cities that, like you said, you’ve never even been to before and have no real impact on your life as a person. It’s just such a wonderful thing to perceive as someone who is like just an outsider watching your work. So, you you’ll bring a lot of comfort and support and that feeling of joy in that solidarity for others, and, along those lines I guess I’d love to hear maybe some things that you’re looking forward to in 2022 for Girls Against.
Ciara:
Well I think that we want to try and have more like physical presence at sort of events now that, obviously we’ve not got the covid restrictions in place. Obviously like when I started with Girls Against because that was just under a year ago, we were right in the middle of pandemic, so there wasn’t much we could actually do, outside of sort of like social media campaigns. But I think we’re all really looking forward to, as I say just having those opportunities. I think we’ve already had a few artists reach out to us this year, asking us to sort of join them on some of their tour dates which is really cool, and yeah, I just think that would be really cool to really get into that and see what difference we can make physically being in those spaces because that’s something none of us have been able to do for a really long time.
Bea:
Yeah, and festivals. I’m excited for festivals because, again, we have such like a fun time working with festivals and like, it’s really hard and a lot of like hard work, but that’s another thing we haven’t been able to do for ages and we’ve had, similarly some festivals reaching out already, and we put out a call out over, over lockdown just being like festivals if you want to work with us like you can contact us we’re here, and we didn’t realise the impact that would have because we have had a lot of festivals contact us, which to me shows a bit of a change in attitude since you know, before, before covid, if you can even say that. So yeah festivals would be good. Hopefully we’ll work with them a lot over summer.
Eve:
That sound really exciting.
Ella:
The post pandemic or post restriction like return to live music was something me and Eve were thinking about over lockdown and I think the fact that so many organisations are reaching out to you is so good to hear because I think that’s like what we’ve been wishing for really with almost like a reset of music scenes. I think now is like definitely the time for spaces to think about their policy and stuff and, you know I completely hear what you were saying earlier about how it feels like a really difficult and a tentative time to approach organisations with those topics because the economy is so difficult for, especially small venues. But, at the same time, I think there’s so much community spirit in both venues and gig-goers to make these spaces the best that they can be and, you know, especially for people who’ve not been for festivals in a long time as well. Like, having your presence there I’m sure will make their experience all the greater for everyone who gets to go.
Bea:
Ah yeah I hope so!
Ella:
Amazing. Well we’ve been chatting away for ages now so are there any things that you’d like to put the audience in the direction of? Maybe your socials or any specific campaigns that you’d like for people to check out?
Bea:
I guess I have to plug that website that I was talking about, so (laughing). Yeah I guess for people just to find us on socials. Our website is girlsagainst.co.uk, our Instagram is @girls,against and our twitter is @girlsagainst and we have resources on our Instagram highlights about the people we support and recommend and obviously you guys as well so, (laughing) your wonderful organisation, so.
Ella:
Amazing. Thank you so much for chatting with us today, it’s been so lovely.
We are Ella and Eve from Where are the Girlbands working in collaboration with Comics Youth to bring you interviews with local organisations and individuals who create safe spaces. You can find us on Instagram as @wherearethegirlbands where we celebrate women in music and discuss how to make local music scenes more accessible for everyone through reviews, video series, interviews and events! You can find more about Comics Youth on Instagram at @comicsyouth or via the website comicsyouth.co.uk. Comics Youth is a youth led organisation that aims to empower youth across the Liverpool City Region to flourish from the margins of society, creating safe spaces where young people can harness their own narratives and find confidence within a creative community. Comics Youth provide a range of creative services designed to support and amplify the often diminished voices of young people, from zine creation to youth led publishing hubs and projects such as this podcast which highlights the voices of those working within our community to create safe spaces! Thanks for listening.
