Joe GallopVision Nine’s 50,000-capacity Boardmasters Festival has announced a new initiative to provide education on topics such as consent to young people and parents.
The festival has teamed up with The Schools Consent Project and It Happens Education to provide a series of workshops at local schools.
The Boardmasters Foundation has donated funds to The Schools Consent Project which will be used to provide volunteer-led workshops in schools in Cornwall and the South West region. The workshops, led by legally trained volunteers, will include information on the legal definition of consent, how to identify consent, the ages of consent, bystander intervention and ways to obtain help.
Boardmasters is part of the AIF’s Safer Spaces charter, which brings together over 60 UK festivals to raise awareness of sexual harassment, promote ‘zero tolerance’ and educate festivalgoers.
Boardmasters Festival CEO and founder Andrew Topham said, “These topics are tricky, whether related to festivals or everyday life. Enabling these initiatives to come to Cornwall and directly to students – and parents of our attendees – is something we are really proud of. As a festival, the safety and welfare of our attendees is paramount. And while we will have many measures, protocols, expert teams and third party providers on site, this year we have taken another proactive step to extend this support even further, into schools and to parents directly.”
Boardmasters has also teamed up with education consultant Zoe Shuttleworth (BA, ILM, NVQ, Director) from It Happens Education. Shuttleworth will host parent webinars on Zoom on 10 and 13 July, discussing the realities of festival life and delving into the conversations parents could be having with their children before they head to site.
Shuttleworth said, “It’s fantastic that Boardmasters are engaging and empowering parents, to decide what topics and conversations they would like to explore with the young people in their lives. Being prepared and well-informed is key to assessing risk, thinking about the consequences, making good choices, asking for help and having a great time at Boardmasters.”