New safety measures, safe space policy announced for Folk on the Rocks

People attending this year's Folk on the Rocks will have "on duty friends" to keep them safe during the festival.

The festival is launching a new Safety Squad, a group of sober volunteers, clad in purple, who will check in on festival goers and patrol the grounds to make sure everyone is partying safely.

This is the first year that Folk on the Rocks has enacted this program. They will also have a safe space set up on festival grounds, meant to act as a sanctuary, says Nancy MacNeill, one of the Safety Squad's captains.

"Sometimes the festival can just get a little bit intense and people need to take a breather before things get a little out of control," said MacNeill.

"[The safe space is a place where people] will be able to get away from it all for a little bit. So if somebody maybe is experimenting with drugs and isn't having a good time, that's a place where they can go and they know that we'll access first aid for them, help them out however we need to."

The safe space is planned to be set up by the festival's entrance. MacNeill says it's important to remember that it will be staffed by volunteers, not doctors.

"It's a nice place for everyone to just step away, take some time, check in with someone who is sober and there to look out for you," she said.

"Sometimes it's just really nice just to have on duty friends around the festival, and that's what the Safety Squad is going to be."

According to Yellowknife RCMP, three alleged sexual assaults "were reported in relation to FOTR 2016."

MacNeill says the new safety precautions were put in place in part because of those incidents.

"These things happen to women, to people at every party and I think it's our responsibility as responsible festival throwers to identify that problem and say 'Hey, this is something that did happen, now we're very aware of it and we can't let this happen again,'" she said.

"These are not isolated incidents, and these things happen far, far too often."

MacNeill wants to see the Safety Squad grow. She wants to make the volunteers available to other local festivals and parties in the city to keep everyone safe.

Folk on the Rocks and NWT Pride released a safe space policy with guidelines on how to keep the festival safe and open to all people. They're encouraging other organizations to adopt the policy as well.