Nonprofit Calling All Crows Offers More #HereForTheMusic Trainings & Events To Combat Sexual Assault

In honor of April being Sexual Assault Awareness Month, nonprofit Calling All Crows is offering more resources and industry trainings to teach the music industry, venues and music fans how to spot sexual harassment at live events and make live music a safer space.

The organization recently released a study examining incidents at festivals over the past five years with 686 respondents reporting over a thousand incidents of harassment of assault including groping, rape and transphobic/homophopic violence with two-thirds of respondents saying they faced sexual harassment or objectification. 

Calling All Crows has already worked with more than 85 artists, festivals and venues – including Phoebe Bridgers, The 1975, Clairo and Courtney Barnett’s Here and There traveling fest implementing Calling All Crows resources on their tours and Bonnaroo providing trainings to their staff. Altogether, the organization has trained more than 3,000 people and reached more than 5,000 fans at shows and festivals across the U.S. and U.K. 

An announcement from Calling All Crows notes that the trainings are not limited to keeping attendees safe but making live music spaces as a workplace safer for folks who work as security staff, bar staff, sound engineers and stage hands, as well as those working in merch and on the tour bus and more. 

Calling All Crows Director Maggie Arthur says, “A common misconception about sexual harassment is that it’s a private issue between two people when in reality, this behavior can have impacts on everyone in the live music eco-system from fans to bar staff to sound engineers, tour managers to the artists on stage and everyone around them. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month so we want to highlight the resources and trainings we offer to end harassment in live music. Whether you are an artist trying to make your tour bus safer with a training for your crew, a venue owner who wants staff at all levels to be able to identify sexual assault and harassment, or a music fan who wants to learn how you can support your friends who’ve been harassed, Calling All Crows has resources available that can make the live space safer for everyone.”

Kim Warnick, founder of the #HereForTheMusic program adds, “We crafted our trainings to educate everyone who enters venues, stadiums, festivals, tour buses etc. We aim to provide people with the resources they need to not only make better decisions for their own behavior, but also become better allies for everyone around them. It takes a collective effort to change the culture of live music and that is how we hope to stamp out the problem of sexual harassment and make live music spaces a safer and more welcoming place for everyone.”

Calling All Crows was founded in 2008 by musician Chad Stokes and tour manager Sybil Gallagher with a mission of connecting music fans with feminist movements for justice and equality.

Visit CallingAllCrows.org for more information.