The Sexual Violence Centre Cork are launching a new pilot scheme to improve safety at concerts and music festivals this summer.
The ‘Safe Gigs’ initiative is being supported by the Department of Justice and UK music promoters Festival Republic which runs the Longitude and Electric Picnic festivals.
The centre is also in discussions with several other festival organisers around the country, with the aim of having a presence at all major concerts in the country.
Staff from the Sexual Violence Centre will attend concerts over the summer to ask people how safe they feel and what they think could be done to improve safety.
Speaking to RedFM News, Mary Crilly from the Sexual Violence Centre Cork outlines why they are launching the new campaign:
"We looked at safety at gigs, we looked at behavior in pubs because people were coming in and saying that they were assaulted, they were pushed, they were touched, they groped. We're looking at how can we stop this, or make people aware of it before it gets serious or what people might consider serious nature, where the messing starts, where the comments start, where the touching and grabbing starts, stop it at that stage and not wait until somebody sees something serious."
