YOUROPE Releases Diversity & Inclusion Toolset
03 June 2024 - Press releaseYOUROPE – The European Festival Association has developed and released the “3F Diversity & Inclusion Toolset” for the European festival sector. The Toolset is a curated collection of resources that can help festival organisers make their event more diverse and inclusive – for their visitors, artists and staff.
YOUROPE is proud to present the Diversity & Inclusion Toolset as part of its three-year project “Future-Fit Festivals” (3F). This toolset is full of resources that can help festival makers create more inclusive and diverse festivals – for the audience, artists and their own team. Resources include guides, tests, checklists, interviews, databases, other toolkits, roadmaps, reports, games and action plans. Most were created by different expert organizations all across Europe and sometimes even beyond. The toolset is public and free to use for any festival or cultural event.
Other contents were created by the project team, e.g. 13 stories of festivals and projects that have implemented measures for more inclusion and diversity. The team wrote these stories so that festival makers can find inspiration and learn more about good-practices so that they can replicate them at their own festivals.
The toolset comes as a PDF and an online version. In the PDF, each resource and story are introduced with a few key facts, a teaser of the contents, and a link to yourope.org. There, readers will find full texts explaining the tools and the good-practice examples in detail, as well as download links of the resources.
The Toolset’s Structure
Common types of discrimination (e.g. ableist, racist, and sexist) inspired the Toolset’s topics. Chapters are dedicated to: Accessibility & Inclusion, Anti-Racism Work & Diversity, Gender & Sexual Equity, Consciousness & Responsibility, Allyship, and good-practice stories. To explain terms like “FLINTA*”, “ableism”, and “BIPoC”, the team also assembled a glossary. Plus, they have written a ‘Diversity Mission Statement’ that
festivals are free to copy and adapt to their own event.
The team behind the toolset
The Toolset is the result of a collaboration of experts from the YOUROPE network, e.g. from Roskilde Festival (DK), Primavera Sound (ES), Flow Festival (FI), Höme – Für Festivals (DE), Open’er Festival (PL) and OpenAir St.Gallen (CH). They were supported by an advisory board of external experts from different countries and backgrounds. Their tasks were to check the team’s unconscious biases and to ensure that the texts are representative of the groups of people this toolset is dedicated to.
This is the first pan-European publication of its size and topical range to be jointlydeveloped and published by and for the festival sector. It can serve as a relevant toolset for organisers of festivals and other large (open-air) events, also far beyond the borders of the EU.
The development process for the toolset started in October 2023 and it was presented to the public for the first time at ESNS 2024, in a panel giving a sneak peek of its contents.
The Toolset can be found here:
Katharina Weber (YOUROPE project management; contributor & editor of the Toolset):
“When we talk to festival organisers about diversity at their events, we sometimes hear that they would like to do more, but they don’t know where to start. They’re afraid of doing something wrong, saying the wrong thing, and the potential backlash that might cause, so they don’t touch the topic.
With this toolset, we give festival organisers a chance to fight this insecurity. It’s a place to start their diversity journey. Our project team did the research and assessed many resources on accessible, diverse, and equal events, so festival organisers don’t have to do it. On top, we hope to inspire them with our stories about good-practice examples from festivals that show how more diversity and inclusion can be achieved.”
Marta Pallarès (Head of Press at Primavera Sound, YOUROPE Board Member, and co-developer of the Toolset):
Marta Pallarès (Head of Press at Primavera Sound, YOUROPE Board Member, and co-developer of the Toolset):
"Something stuck with me after a short conversation with the Awareness Team at Reeperbahn Festival in 2023. They handed me a little sticker, a perfect form of a circle made with these words: "It's a process it's a process it's a process." And indeed, making our festivals better, safer, more diverse and more inclusive IS a process: the more you know, the more you realise the things you still don't. And if you are just getting introduced to these concepts, finding where to start can feel overwhelming, even if you might sense that the moment to begin is now.
This is the main goal of our toolset: if your festival is already doing great, but you'd like to get inspiration and ideas to do even better, this is for you. And if you want to start somewhere but you don't know how... this is for you as well.
This is the main goal of our toolset: if your festival is already doing great, but you'd like to get inspiration and ideas to do even better, this is for you. And if you want to start somewhere but you don't know how... this is for you as well.
Remember: it is a process, and doesn't matter where you are, as a circle doesn't have a beginning or an end. Everyone is welcome in it, as long as you decide to join. Welcome aboard.”
Submit news or a press release
Want to add your news or press release? Email Paul or Kevin
Two week FREE trial