Sexism Free Night

The EU project Sexism Free Night was launched to raise awareness and proactively address sexualised violence in nightlife across Europe. On the german side, it is represented by the Clubcommission Berlin and researches the experience and frequency of sexualised assaults in nightlife, as well as the intersection with substance use, and develops various prevention and awareness-raising trainings for organisers and nightlife professionals, festival managers and harm reduction activists. In addition, a Europe-wide network of experts and committed initiatives as well as a transnational awareness-raising campaign are being developed under the label Sexism Free Night.

The project is funded by the European Union Programme for Rights, Equality and Citizenship (2014-2020) and implemented by the Health and Community Foundation together with Observatorio Noctámbul@s (ES), the Faculty of Education and Psychology of Universidade Católica Portuguesa (PT), Clubcommission Berlin (DE), Kanepes Kulturzentrum (LV) and ReGeneration (RS).

European online survey

The project uses data and facts to substantiate the often taboo topic of sexual violence in nightlife and aims to facilitate an open and constructive discourse about it. In the first phase of the project, over 5000 people across Europe were voluntarily and anonymously surveyed in 2020, thus researching the experience and frequency of sexualised assault in nightlife, as well as the intersection with drug use. An official report on the results will be published in 2021.

Europe-wide trainings

The data and findings collected in the European survey will provide a basis for the development of trainings on awareness-raising and prevention of sexualised violence in nightlife. These will be developed and executed by the Berlin Club Commission during 2021 for three different sectors or functional groups: Professionals in nightlife, festival managers and those active in harm reduction.

The trainings use the bystander intervention approach in the training of nightlife professionals by raising awareness of their central role in recognising and acting in situations of sexual violence.

For each training, a publicly accessible handbook is developed that conveys basic knowledge and also follows the train-the-trainer approach, so that as many people as possible can become active in their fields of work in a low-threshold way beyond the Sexism Free Night project.

European Network

In the course of 2021, Sexism Free Night wants to record projects, initiatives and collectives that are already implementing measures and concepts to combat sexism in nightlife and at festivals or to prevent gender-based assaults in these areas. With this data, a map will be created to make initiatives visible that are already active in this area. The aim is to build a European Sexism Free Network at the intersection of gender, nightlife and drug use in order to strengthen the dialogue among each other, exchange and link good practices, strategies, experiences and knowledge in this field.

European campaign

All activities of the Sexism Free Night project will be flanked by a transnational awareness campaign targeting bystander and potential perpetrators of violence in nightlife.

The aim is to raise awareness of the importance of bystanders in combating sexism and preventing sexual violence among nightlife guests.