L’Oréal Paris partnered with AEG Presents to help create a safer environment for all festival-goers.

The partnership is focused on tackling the harassment of women in public spaces. Activation took place at Music festival, All Points East, recently returned to London, with a line up including Stormzy, The Strokes, Jungle, Erykah Badu and HAIM.

All Points East is a London-based music festival, taking place annually and over 10 days. During this time, there is a mixture of live performances on the weekends, and free community activities during the week.

The festival is one of the highlights of the busy UK summer festival schedule. Yet, while these events are the highlight of the season for live music lovers, they are also events where sexual harassment remains rife. A research team at Durham found, from a pool of 450 festival attendees, a third of the women had been sexually harassed at a festival. Similarly, a poll by YouGov in 2018 saw that almost half of women under 40 years old had experienced sexual harassment while attending a festival.

This harmful behaviour often occurs in public spaces, like a music festival. In a YouGov survey of women in the UK, 80% said that they had been harassed in public spaces. In the face of this stark fact, L’Oréal Paris and AEG Presents have produced a campaign to support and actively safeguard women against harassment.

Stand Up, a training programme from L’Oréal Paris, was the first stage of this journey. Promoting allyship and training focused on personal safety, the campaign is aligned with the brand’s ‘I’m worth it’ tagline. Delivered by The Suzy Lamplugh Trust, a personal safety charity and leading stalking authority, the training began nationally in April 2022.

Training includes: How to be an active bystander when witnessing harassment, how to safely help diffuse situations, how to discourage harassment, and how to support those who experience it.

Awareness and education is highly important. Helena Osborne, Head of Consumer Engagement at L’Oréal Paris, explained: “We are proud to take a leading role in addressing the ongoing issue of street harassment in public spaces. Our partnership with AEG Presents and NME will bring our training to a wider audience, helping them learn how to make all public spaces, such as festivals and sporting events, safer for everyone.”

At All Points East, the collaboration saw the Stand Up initiative evolve into new spaces. These include anti-harassment training, a phone charging station and a physical safe space.

As well as 500 festival employees receiving Stand Up training to identify and address harassment incidents. Training opportunities were also extended to attendees. In addition to spreading the word through education, the campaign sponsored the Emerging Talent stage and had artists like Paris Paloma talk about the value of Stand Up, and highlight the training on offer.

The campaign was intended to create a positive impact that extended beyond the duration of All Points East. Lynsey Wollaston, VP and GM of European Festivals at AEG Presents, explained: “We run more than a thousand events across the UK every year, and it is very important to us that we provide safe communities and support initiatives that help to reduce harassment in all public spaces.”

She continued: “Our partnership with L’Oréal Paris brings a new dimension to our commitment by providing training for our fans and our staff, which they can take away with them, helping them to feel safer and more confident wherever in the world they may be. No one should ever feel harassed, and L’Oréal Paris’ grassroots activity at the festival will spread the message on what to do if you feel threatened or witness inappropriate behaviour”.

L’Oréal Paris and creative agency McCann also established a safe space; Charge Up to Stand Up. As well as curating videos for the stage, McCann designed this pop-up. The spot offered people the chance to charge their phones, take a breather, and learn about the programme. Staying connected can be really important for personal safety. A charged phone allows people to stay in contact, access rides home, view maps, and so on.

Looking beyond the festival, L’Oréal Paris teamed up with music publication NME. With footage of performances and links to sign up for Stand Up training, NME are using their website and social platforms to continue to raise awareness. This partnership was led by media agency EssenceMediacomX. NME will also produce a video series where music artists who performed at All Points East share their experiences with sexual harassment.

By collaborating with AEG Presents and featuring at All Points East, the Stand Up campaign voiced its message on an effective platform. Hoping to drive long-lasting, positive change, it found a way to educate the public - during and beyond the event. A practical approach to enabling personal safety and encouraging safeguarding to successfully drive impact beyond the bottom line.