Anthropos Network · Cross-event policy
Social Inclusion & Community Safety
This policy applies across all Anthropos Network events we deliver or co‑produce. It should be read alongside our Non‑Discrimination Policy and Eco Policy.
At Anthropos, we believe everyone’s voice is important and brings something unique to the reality we shape together. Being an event genuinely open to anyone means we must be prepared, both individually and collectively, to actively protect the safety and dignity of every person in our community. We take that responsibility seriously.
Our mission is a discrimination‑free world. We celebrate love’s diversity, foster an inclusive environment, and value each person’s unique contribution. We cultivate relationships and collaborate within a hate‑free space, and we uphold diversity and inclusivity in all their forms.
United under our name, Greek for “Human”, our organisation embodies a celebration of every individual. Affirming diversity and inclusivity, interconnected and united, we declare that: We All Are Anthropos.
Actively Anti‑Racist
We recognise that neutrality in the face of racism is complicity. We actively challenge racism and racial discrimination in all its forms, including systemic and structural racism.
Hate‑Free Space
We cultivate a zero‑tolerance environment for hate speech in all forms. Discrimination, dehumanisation and bigotry have no place in our community, on or offline.
Harassment‑Free
Sexual harassment, assault and any form of unwanted contact are absolutely prohibited. Consent is non‑negotiable. Support is always available on site.
Intersectional Awareness
We recognise that many people face multiple overlapping forms of marginalisation. Our approach to inclusion is intersectional, and we see and honour the whole person.
Pro‑Social & Inclusive
Every human is welcome at Anthropos. We actively work to lower barriers to attendance and participation across lines of race, class, gender identity, sexuality, disability and more.
Consensus‑Democratic
Our community is horizontal and bottom‑up. Every voice matters. We make decisions together and hold each other accountable through compassion, not hierarchy.
Support & Reporting
If something goes wrong, you will never be alone in dealing with an incident at an Anthropos event. If you experience or witness any behaviour that violates this policy, please use any of the routes below. All reports are treated with care, discretion and urgency.
On‑Site Welfare Team
PsyCare UK (Registered Charity No. 1167203) — part of the growing PsyCare International network. Trained welfare volunteers are present throughout the event. The welfare tent is a safe, confidential space. Please keep a look‑out for the PsyCare symbol or the Purple‑Cross flag.
Ask Any Crew Member
All Anthropos crew members are briefed on this policy and are empowered to receive reports and take immediate action. Approach anyone wearing an Anthropos crew vest.
Email Us (Actively Monitored, Confidential)
To raise a concern before, during (via message) or after an event, email welfare@anthroposfestival.org. This address is actively monitored during events and all correspondence is confidential.
Call Us (Lines Open 24h, Thursday to Monday)
During the event, please call welfare on the number released approximately three months before the event. Speak up. We are listening.
Reporting an incident is an act of community care. You are protecting not only yourself but others who may encounter the same person. Your voice matters here.
Our Boundaries — Zero Tolerance Behaviours
Zero tolerance for racism, queerphobia, sexual violence and harassment, or other serious discrimination or bigotry.
Zero tolerance for the advocacy, glorification, denial or trivialisation of genocide, apartheid, crimes against humanity, or the Holocaust.
You may be removed from the premises and will get no refund.
Watched Spaces
We are present and paying attention throughout the event. The spaces are watched.
Here to Listen
The safeguarding and welfare teams are here for you. We are here to listen, always.
Trained & Aware
Our staff is trained and aware. Every crew member is briefed and empowered to act.
Personal Responsibility & Boundaries
While we provide a watched space, you are responsible for your own actions, safety, and boundaries.
- ✓ Respect physical and emotional boundaries: recognise where you end and others begin.
- ✓ Respect others’ limits: pay attention to verbal and non‑verbal cues. If someone asks for space, honour it.
- ✓ Active consent: consent is enthusiastic, ongoing, and freely given.
- ✓ Individual wellbeing: practise self‑care and ask for help when needed.
- ✓ Empowerment: you have the right to say “no” or “stop” to anyone at any time.
- ✓ Self‑care & capacity: know your limits around capacity, emotional energy, and alcohol/substance consumption.
- ✓ Accountability: own your behaviour and its impact, regardless of intention. If someone tells you that your behaviour makes them uncomfortable, apologise, stop, and move on. Intention does not excuse impact.
Reasons for Removal
Because we are genuinely open to anyone, we must also be prepared to protect our community from those who would cause harm. The following behaviours result in removal from the event with no refund, and may be referred to the relevant authorities.
- ✗ Violence & threatening behaviour — physical violence, threats, intimidation, or behaviour designed to make someone fear for their safety.
- ✗ Sexual harassment & assault — unwanted sexual attention, touching, following, or coercive behaviour. Consent is enthusiastic, ongoing and freely given.
- ✗ Disregard for personal boundaries — including stalking, unwanted following, or continuing to engage with someone after being asked to stop.
- ✗ Hate speech — any speech that dehumanises people based on protected characteristics including race, religion, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexuality, nationality and more.
- ✗ Racism & racial discrimination — including casual racism, dismissed microaggressions, and structural bias expressed interpersonally.
- ✗ Queerphobia & transphobia — including misgendering after correction, outing, or invasive questioning about someone’s body or identity.
- ✗ Discrimination or dehumanisation along any line of marginalisation — including ageism, ableism, classism, sexism, religious discrimination and discrimination based on body size or appearance.
- ✗ Denial, glorification or trivialisation of the Holocaust, genocide, apartheid or crimes against humanity.
- ✗ Refusal to comply — refusing to abide by these safer‑space guidelines or challenging staff/security when asked to change behaviour.
Expected Behaviour & Community Care
Safety is a collective responsibility. Here is what we ask of every person who joins us:
- ✓ Check in on each other. If you see someone who looks distressed, approach with compassion or alert a crew member.
- ✓ Report, don’t retaliate. Tell welfare or use the contacts above. Do not take matters into your own hands physically.
- ✓ Ask before you touch. Clear, enthusiastic consent before any physical contact, in every context, always.
- ✓ Respect pronouns and chosen names. If you make a mistake, correct yourself, apologise briefly and move on.
- ✓ Acknowledge your privilege. Being an ally means actively using it to support those with less power in a given moment.
- ✓ Speak up, not over. Amplify marginalised voices rather than speaking for them.
- ✓ Embrace the learning. If your behaviour is flagged as harmful, engage with curiosity and humility.
Collective & Individual Responsibility
Inclusion is not only an individual act; it is a collective practice. We are a community, and the safety of the most vulnerable members is the responsibility of every one of us. Unsavoury characters do occasionally attempt to infiltrate open communities. We prepare for this together, with our welfare team, trained volunteers and the entire Anthropos community.
Respect the Land & Community
We operate on a “Leave No Trace” principle — take all your belongings and litter with you. Be conscious of noise level, particularly in camping areas, and be respectful of the communities around our sites.
Photography & Digital Consent
Photography and video recording will happen. If you do not wish to be photographed or filmed by the official team, please inform a staff member. Be respectful of others when taking personal photos; do not photograph other guests without consent.
Honour Your Own Boundaries & Capacity
There is no guarantee of absolute confidentiality in a large public festival space, so please be mindful of what you share. Honour your capacity. You are welcome to withdraw from any area or activity at any time, take space, or choose to witness rather than engage.
Active Bystander & Collective Responsibility
Providing a safe and welcoming space is everybody’s responsibility, not only the duty of those subject to oppression to challenge it. If you witness inappropriate behaviour, intervene if safe to do so, or bring it to the attention of our volunteers and safety stewards.
Respect Privacy & Physical Consent
Please honour the privacy of those who share intimate moments and do not share anyone’s personal experience or identity outside the event without their explicit permission. Ask before touching (including hugs), respect “no” without needing a reason, and ask for pronouns rather than making assumptions.
Intersectionality
Discrimination rarely works in isolation. Intersectionality is the understanding that systems of oppression — racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, classism and more — do not operate independently of each other. A Black queer woman, for example, may experience forms of discrimination that neither a white queer woman nor a straight Black woman would face in quite the same way. Our inclusion work accounts for this complexity.
International & Global Community
We are a community of festival‑goers, artists and musicians, crew and collaborators, local and international, coming together each summer from all over the world to make something new.
As an international, non‑political, secular, non‑sectarian, non‑ideological organisation, and to ensure a neutral and inclusive environment, we do not permit the display of national flags, banners, or emblems at our events, with the exception of official accreditation or designated safety signage. This ensures our gathering remains a welcoming space free from external political, national, or ideological divisions, allowing us to connect on a human level. We encourage creative expression through art and personal attire that fosters unity rather than division.
- Accessible information — safety and logistical information in multiple languages or via visual, language‑neutral signage so all international participants can navigate the event safely.
- Dedicated welfare/inclusion support — our team helps international visitors with queries on safety, local travel, or cultural context.
- Documentation support — we assist international crew and performers with documentation for safe and legal participation.
Social‑Ecological Approach & Solar‑Punk Connection
A just, ecological future requires that inclusion and sustainability are inseparable. Solar‑Punk, as a movement, is the practicable application of Social‑Ecology — bringing the theory of re‑harmonising society with nature into tangible action.
By identifying human hierarchy as the root of ecological destruction, it calls for a shift from our prevailing mindset to a non‑hierarchical, democratic society based on an ethic of complementarity.
What is Social‑Ecology?
Social‑Ecology studies the interdependence between people and their environments. Following Murray Bookchin, it proposes that environmental issues cannot be resolved without restructuring society into a “moral economy” that acts as a conscious part of natural evolution. Key threads: critique of hierarchy, ethic of complementarity, social permaculture, and ecological humanism.
What is Solar‑Punk?
Solar‑Punk is a movement and aesthetic that imagines a future in which humanity has solved its greatest challenges — ecological breakdown, inequality, alienation — through community, ingenuity, and a profound reconnection with the natural world. It is optimistic, pluralistic, and deeply intersectional, bridging utopian dreaming with prefigurative, DIY politics.
Anthropos events are living experiments in what that future can feel like now. Solar power, tree planting, compost toilets, plant‑based food, and a leave‑no‑trace ethos sit alongside our commitment to radical inclusion and non‑hierarchical organising. You cannot build a just ecological future without building a just community first.
Feminist Praxis
Anthropos as a community organisation has many queer members. We operate within a broadly feminist framework, meaning we actively work to dismantle patriarchal structures and norms both within our organisation and within the event space. This includes equitable representation across genders in programme, lineup and crew leadership; active prevention of and swift response to sexual harassment and assault; welfare provision that includes reproductive health resources (period products at the welfare tent); amplification of feminist, womanist and queer scholarship in our lectures and talks; and the recognition that feminism must be intersectional to be meaningful.
Feminism is not exclusive. A feminist approach benefits everyone. When we dismantle the structures that oppress women, non‑binary and gender non‑conforming people, we create freer conditions for all humans.
LGBTQIA+ Inclusion
Queer joy is welcome here. Always. We are a queer‑inclusive, womxn‑led community organising group. We live this, we celebrate queer joy, and we stand in fierce solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community.
We celebrate love in all its diversity. We foster an environment where every gender identity and sexual orientation is not merely tolerated but joyfully celebrated. We passionately advocate for unapologetic self‑expression, holding space for the full spectrum of queer experience.
Transgender & Non‑Binary Inclusion
Anthropos is committed to being a genuinely trans‑affirming environment. This includes proactive gender‑neutral and accessible toilet facilities, respectful use of correct pronouns by all crew, zero tolerance for transphobia in any form, and active, empowered support for trans attendees who encounter issues on site.
Help Us Help You
If you think there is a way we can better include you or anyone else, please get in touch and we will do what we can.