Creating Safer Spaces: a session for (circus festival) organisers

'The Elephant in the Room’: How do we take care of young people as they become emerging artists and enter the world of professional performance? As head of CircusWorks, the national network for youth circuses in the UK, Lynn Carroll began receiving requests for advice on safeguarding after a number of disturbing incidents at festivals, events and on tours. Lynn was well informed on child protection, but what happens to our young people when they enter the workplace? Who looks out for them then? Driven by a determination to create a safer spaces for young people, Lynn teamed up others working in the circus and events industry, including of Kate Webb, coordinator of emerging professional network Circus Change Up, and Anna McGregor, whose company, ’Safer Spaces’ specialises in creating safe spaces at festivals. Lynn and Kate will be presenting their journey so far.

Lynn Carroll (left) is Executive Director of Galway Community Circus, Director of CircusWorks and President of EYCO – the European Youth Circus Organisation. An internationally renowned expert in circus and education, she has performed globally as a multi-disciplined circus artist with some of the most pioneering and acclaimed contemporary circus companies of the time, as well as being at the forefront of developing the UK youth circus sector for nearly 40 years. Kate Webb (right) trained at The Laban Centre and Circomedia, she was initially an aerialist performing with Skinning the Cat Aerial Theatre, In 2001, Kate set up Circomedia’s outreach programme and went on to set up and run their BTEC National Diploma qualification, as well as teach on the FDA and MA programmes. Kate has an MA in Educational Research and was the lead tutor on Circomedia’s Teacher Training Course. As a freelance director and producer, Kate works regularly with Cirque Bijou. She was the Associate Circus Director for Extraordinary Bodies production of Waldo’s Circus of Magic and Terror (2023) and regularly directs for Tumbellina International. Kate was also the producer of Bristol’s Circus 250 celebrations in 2018. Strategic work includes development for Circomedia (2018-2021), leading on Circus Change Up – an initiative to develop sector support for circus, working with Equity to develop safe working practices and working on talent development for disabled artists with Extraordinary Bodies. Kate is also a member of the advisory board for Revel Pucks Circus and is a member of Circus Works board. Kate is an RD1st Coach and regularly supports artists at all stages of their careers.

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CircusDanceFestival is a Cologne based organization dedicated to current aesthetics, practices and discourses in the field of contemporary circus and dance. Luzie Schwarz and Philipp Zander present the work CircusDance Festival has done on safety approaches concerning circus performances with audience interaction and the development of an awareness concept on the festival site which includes supporters running it. They will share concrete cases they have experienced in the organisation of CircusDanceFestival.

Dennis Yenmez

Philipp Zander (left) is the technical director of the CircusDanceFestival in Cologne and Overhead Project company. In 2013 he completed the three-year professional development as a specialist for event technology and is currently in the process of completing his bachelor in event technology. In context of leading festivals, Philipp Zander faced several time challenges of mediating between the physical interaction or risky scenes and the conflict of legal conditions in Germany for the protection of the audience. Luzie Schwarz (right) is part of CircusDanceFestivals production team since 2021. Starting as production assistant she is now since August 2022 production manager of the Festival. Degreed as a social worker with a Bachelor in 2018 and Master in pedagogic and management she started organizing cultural events such as N.N. Theater Freiluft Festival and international social soccer summits. Interested in social and gender justice she wrote both her bachelor and master thesis about the situation of women such as women in leading positions. Together with a team at CircusDanceFestival she created an awareness concept and a code of conduct for the Festival.

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For more than 15 years, Flow has been actively supporting organisers, public institutions and visitors, both in training volunteers and crew and supervising events. Flow offers expertise on helping organisers of events and festivals to set up Safe Spaces and contact points. They provide advice for the set-up and the right people to keep the safe space open at events. This way, they contribute to providing a safe space and listening ear for people who experience over-stimulation, sexually transgressive behaviour or discrimination at an event.

Adriaan began working in nightlife 10 years ago as an atmosphere budy at Ghent Festival, 10 day city festival. He volunteered at the Vlasmarkt, the main area with free open-air parties until 10 a.m. in a city center. During the Corona crisis he started Flow together with Matthias Dermout and offers support in Event Safety and Nightlife Hospitality using atmosphere control more then "hard security" ways with a focus on harm reduction and adressing sexual assault.

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Ahead of the conference the organising teams of 'Circus- a safe(r) space for danger', MAD Convention and MAD Festival were guided by the skilfull expertise of Plan SACHA. Plan SACHA supports event organisers in developing protocols to respond to aggressive or intimidating behaviour. The organising teams received a 1-day training on key concepts about discriminatory practices and the myths surrounding sexist and sexual violence. Case studies and protocols were examined. The teams then set to work developing charters and protocols tailored to the different events and their target audiences. Forces were joined to make the conference 'Circus - a safe(er) space for danger', MAD Festival and MAD Convention a safer space for participants! MAD Festival, Ell Circo D'ell Fuego and Circuscentrum, the initiators of the conference, will be presenting the journey in this endeavour so far and the concrete actions that were taken.

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