“We want to make Basel a safer place.”

Imagine, the largest free open-air festival in Basel, is focusing on safety this year. Til Hänggi explains in an interview why this is necessary and what a new partnership with Opferhilfe beider Basel will bring. He takes care of sensitization at imagine.

The imagine homepage says “more than a festival”. What exactly is imagine?
The largest annual festival in Basel on Barfüsserplatz is certainly the best known. What far too few people know: imagine organizes the festival itself, but above all the year through many other events and activities. Always with the aim of making diversity visible in Basel and the surrounding area and addressing discrimination. So imagine is “more” than just a festival and music.

How do you define topics?
We are guided by an annual theme, which is made visible in the form of workshops and acts on and off stage. Over the course of the year, cinema events were held at the neues kino basel, dialog evenings, writing workshops and self-defense courses. At the festival itself, it is important to us to bring other formats to the stage alongside local and meaningful musical acts.

Can you give examples?
A long-standing partner is the Niemandsland theater group. It is made up of people who have experienced flight and migration. At the 2023 festival, we also staged a large drag show during the main season – incidentally, the first drag show of its kind open to the public in Basel. We were also able to bring eloquent slam poets to the stage and offer Helvetia Rockt DJ workshops for FINTA people (women, intersex, non-binary and transgender people or people without gender identity). imagine is passion, a kind of activism, with the aim of making Basel and the surrounding area a safer place.

How did it come about that sensitization is a central part of imagine?
The festival began as “the festival against racism” and has evolved to address different topics. Raising awareness is crucial in order to address current needs in the public discourse, during the festival and throughout the year.

What is your job?
I started out as a volunteer at various events throughout the year and at the festival itself – by the way, all young people up to the age of 26 can take part. Together with Selin, I’m now in charge of awareness-raising, which has become a matter close to my heart. We work out the annual theme, organize a varied programme in addition to the musical performances at the festival, ensure that the festival site is as barrier-free as possible and are responsible for the awareness team. Throughout the year, we organize all events related to the annual theme.

Why is awareness important at a festival?
People from a wide variety of backgrounds come together here. The deliberately free event takes place on the centrally located Barfüsserplatz in Basel’s city center, which creates a wide variety of visitors. The reasons for their visit are manifold – be it out of interest in the project, the line-up or because they are walking past it. In such encounters, individual routines, attitudes and personal manners develop. In addition, it is not enough to simply have a security service in place; these often have negative connotations and are associated with mediation through violence.

What does that mean?
For some visitors, the festival program itself may offer unfamiliar, eye-opening or unusual situations that provoke different reactions. If those present feel overwhelmed, experience discomfort, experience sensory overload or even assaults take place, our awareness team is on site as a trusted person. Our aim is for all visitors to feel comfortable and safe so that as many people as possible can take part in the festival. The awareness team is the interface between the festival management and the security service, a personal point of contact without authority.

What are you doing specifically? How can you raise awareness?
Everything is based on our awareness concept. At the festival, we have different teams that are out and about on the festival site at the same time. Each team includes one experienced and trained person and at least one other person who has received a thorough introduction to the topic before the festival. The awareness team then sets itself the task of engaging in dialog with the audience and responding to their needs. It is neither the police nor a security service, but a neutral contact person. The awareness team should be as visible as possible on site, through appropriate clothing, with the help of the moderator, their own awareness phone number and signage. Attention is drawn to this even before the festival.

Why is this year’s imagine theme “Security”? What is the goal?
Security affects everyone directly or indirectly, and it is important to have a constructive dialog about it. We wanted to keep the topic open because security means different things to different people. And we hope to offer as many people as possible a platform to express their needs. The aim is to discuss the topic together and to listen instead of pillorying individual institutions.

There is now an awareness partnership with Victim Support. What’s in it for you?
This enables us to improve the awareness concept and make it more visible. We can benefit greatly from the expert knowledge of victim support. The concept developed should also be able to be used for other events. We can provide each other with visibility and a platform.

What are you personally looking forward to most about the festival, which takes place on 7. and June 8, 2024 in Basel?
In my last imagine year, I’m looking forward to putting my heart and soul into making another contribution to an inclusive festival. I am particularly looking forward to an even more present awareness team to create an even more comprehensive safe space feeling. I am also looking forward to being able to select the awareness-raising acts once again.

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