Featured Organization - Good Night Out

Good Night Out (GNO) is a BC- Based non-profit society that works directly with the hospitality and music sectors to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and create safer experiences for those working in those industries as well as patrons. Good Night Out’s roots are on the occupied and unceded ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skxwú7mesh and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ people, but we do work across Canada and internationally. GNO’s work in the area of safer music spaces , has lead to partnerships with venues and festivals of all sizes, The Cities of Victoria and Vancouver, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, artists, and many other stakeholders in the hospitality and entertainment sector.

Follow Good Night Out on Instagram.

What is success for your organization in the coming year?

Externally, we would love to work with more of the major festivals in Canada to foster ongoing relationships that go beyond booking a 1 time workshop to having something that looks like a minimum standard of prevention and responses interventions they are using across all of their operations. We would also like to work with more Canadian artists! We have many from the US taking our training and working with us to create safer shows and tours, but not as many on our home turf taking us up. Internally, we dream of funding for an executive director.

What are you currently excited about in the music industry?

In trying to see the positive as the industry recovers from the devastation of COVID, we have been excited to see the creative ways that venues and promoters adapted to ensure patron safety - so many of the things that were done to keep patrons safe during the pandemic (stricter rules, enforcement of fines, clear communication about safety measures, and updated policies) are actually VERY similar to what is needed to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct.We get excited in helping teams see that they actually already know how to do a lot of this! We are also encouraged by what appears to be a shift in fan / patron expectations. We have noticed they are expected more in terms of safety measures from shows - we love to see it!

What is the greatest challenge you face currently, and how can other industry and artists partners help?

Our biggest challenge has been pretty consistent since we started this work in 2016 and it is that interest in the prevention of sexual violence tends to follow a very predictable wave: Very public call out of an artist -> mass conversation on social media which often involves survivors naming their truth in a public form and facing hate for it -> high profile folks calling for change -> little action taken. We know that if we wake up and see 100s of notifications on our socials, we are about to get very busy for a few weeks, and then have to return to baseline. We hope to, before this project calls it a day, see the industries we work in have prolonged, sustained, investment in creating what we call 'protective spaces.' It is ONGOING work. It requires more than a hashtag or signing on to a Code of Conduct. It is what you do, say, resist, and amplify when no one is looking. Because so much of it is internal, it work that is honestly never done.

Can you give a shout out to an artist or industry member who is also doing great things?

SO many! Katrina Lopes (who we sat on a panel with at the last BOW), Brittney MacFarlane over at SASK music. Nancy Lee, and all their work with Music BC, Current Symposium and their artistic vision in general. Paul Brooks at Take Aim Media for thoughtfully and carefully carving spaces and new narratives for voices who are often tokenized in music media . Randy Iwata who has been a supporter of GNO since day 1. Sled Island for their investment in safer spaces, Feist, recently for her choices and transparency around working in this industry and making values aligned choices for herself.