On Friday May 18, Pitchfork Music Festival announced its partnership with RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), in order to raise awareness and help prevent sexual assault and sexual violence, especially in the music community. RAINN is the largest anti-sexual violence organization in the United States, working with more than 1,000 local sexual assault prevention groups across the country, and has helped more than 2.5 million people since 1994.
Pitchfork aims to bring awareness to the work RAINN is doing by networking to their audiences.
Pitchfork Music Festival, held July 20-22 in Chicago, will donate a portion of the year's proceeds to RAINN.
In the press release, senior director of festivals at Pitchfork, Adam Krefman said: “Our objective is to shine a spotlight on RAINN as a first-responder resource for the Pitchfork community, at the Festival, in Chicago, and more broadly for our readership. It’s crucial that we continue to bring attention to the issue of sexual violence in the music industry and beyond, and we believe that our alignment with RAINN will make a positive impact.”
Pitchfork will use their editorial coverage to better publicize the work RAINN is doing.
While RAINN representatives will be at the festival to provide information and answer questions, Pitchfork Music Festival 2018 will have an onsite Resource and Response Center. This will serve as a place for qualified and trained personnel to respond in scenarios that may require services outside of typical security or medical response. The center will be staffed with counselors equipped to handle: sexual harassment or trauma issues, racial and LGBTQIA+ sensitivity matters, crowd-related anxiety, or any other general concerns.
In the Pitchfork press release, Jodie Omear, vice president of communications at RAINN said, “Sexual violence is a crime that doesn’t see race, age, or gender. It’s an issue that affects nearly every family across the country, and it’s important that we stand with survivors and let them know support is available.”
