The imagine festival went on 7. and June 8 peacefully across the stages at Klosterhof and Barfüsserplatz in Basel’s city center.
The new awareness concept, which aims to prevent border crossings, proved its worth.
Also thanks to the support of the Basel Victim Support.
Even if the weather wasn’t quite ideal, thousands of visitors attended the Openair Festival imagine in Basel.
A great atmosphere, cool music and performances – a successful event all round.
It’s impressive what the young people from imagine have built and realized!
Focus on safety and awareness
Imagine hit the bull’s eye with its focus on “safety” and lived safety itself.
Workshops, discussions, film screenings and other events were held in the months leading up to the festival.
The new awareness concept was implemented at the festival.
And the topic of safety and sexualized violence was debated on an exciting panel.
For those responsible at imagine, it was important to implement awareness consistently and visibly.
After all, the festival should be a place where everyone can feel comfortable and safe and not be discriminated against.
The following measures have proven successful:
Awareness teams: Various teams of two wearing conspicuous awareness vests were out and about on the festival site and could be approached at any time.
In the event of incidents, they helped the people concerned and took them to a safe place (“safer space”).
They had all attended awareness training in advance.
Awareness information tent: A contact point for any concerns.
Affected people could turn to the clearly marked awareness staff in the tent.
They were listened to and offered support.
Awareness contact number: The telephone number of the awareness contact was displayed on the flags, on the tent and on the vests of the awareness teams.
If a person felt uncomfortable, unsafe, harassed, harassed or observed a boundary being crossed, they could call immediately.
The awareness team answered the phone and responded.
Code word “Is Luis*a here?”: The awareness teams could be approached in any way.
If the person concerned was uncomfortable, they could use the low-threshold code word “Is Luis*a here?”.
The helpers from the awareness teams then immediately offered support based on the needs of the person concerned.
The code word could also be used at all food and drink stands and with other festival staff.
Samaritan post: There was a supervised Samaritan post on the festival site.
This post also served as a “safe space” and allowed people to pause for a moment.
Festival security: The “taktvoll” security service always kept an overview and was able to intervene in a de-escalating manner in an emergency and provide security.
The implementation of awareness was exemplary and set new standards for the region.
Thanks to the large visual awareness presence and the numerous employees deployed, the festival ran very peacefully.
The awareness and security teams were only confronted with a few incidents and were able to take the right measures in the interests of those affected.
More offers are needed
On Saturday evening, an exciting panel discussion on the topic of safety took place between the concerts on the Klosterhof stage.
Hanna Girard (journalist, reporter) moderated the discussion.
Livia Boscardin (Wen-Do, Basel), Anna-Béatrice Schmaltz (feminist peace organization), Nina Hurni (imagine), Adrian Kamber (Association of Psychologists of beider Basel) and Alessandro Suter (Opferhilfe beider Basel) were also present.
With their strong contributions, they made it clear that sexualized violence is still trivialized in Switzerland and that violence is a structural problem.
It is important that those affected by violence seek help and that society does not look away and make incidents of violence taboo.
The discussion also showed that there are not enough services for people who use violence and those affected by violence.
Politicians will be called upon to do more in the coming years.
Effective partnership
The Association of Psychologists of beider Basel and Opferhilfe beider Basel have entered into a partnership with imagine regarding awareness.
It had a great impact and was a win-win situation for everyone involved.
Together, they were able to realize a festival that provided all visitors with safe, great and unforgettable festival hours.
More about awareness
Victim Support beider Basel
Steinengraben 5
CH-4051 Basel
Monday to Friday
8.30 – 12.00 and
from 13.30 – 16.30