Towards Equity

Bass Coast’s diversity and inclusion practices are grounded in the acknowledgement that our festival takes place on the occupied, traditional and ancestral territories of the Nłeʔkepmx and Syilx. As such, all of our endeavours to create a more equitable, safer festival experience happen on a foundation that relies on systems of exploitation, dispossession and violence. 

Bass Coast is dedicated to examining how these systems show up across the Bass Coast process; within our teams, in our online spaces and at our events. 

This page is a living document and will grow and adapt as we do. This work is a lifelong process. The work that needs to be done is so much more than items on a list. 

Applications


Hiring and Recruitment


Programming With Diversity in Mind


Community


Conversations of Cultural appropriation


Media & Representation


Training and Education


Accessibility


Where we are at

Over the past four years Bass Coast has intentionally made space within the music industry for women. This has taken place not just on the stage but also behind the scenes at the management level. We have increased our internal and external capacity in preventing and responding to issues of harassment and violence against women and marginalized genders and sexualities at our events and across our team. Our values around safety, inclusivity are clearly communicated in our Code of Conduct. 

Bass Coast has also invested in relationships with Indigenous communities connected to our event and the broader music industry. In 2014, after consultation, we made the decision to ban feather headdresses, becoming one of the first mass gatherings to take this stand. 

As the opiate crisis continues to take the lives of people who use drugs, Bass Coast has established a strong Harm Reduction program rooted in pragmatic strategies that seek to reduce the risks and stigma faced by people who use drugs. We have been able to equip our community with skills and language to better talk about contaminated drug supply at a time when stigma and shame continues to deeply harm and even kill people who use drugs.

Where we want to go

Bass Coast acknowledges there is a long road ahead, with much work to be done particularly in the areas of programming and hiring. In addition to the actions includes in the realms above, we commit to:

  • Establishing an inclusion advisory committee to help form the next steps.

  • Initiating a survey to hear from our community about issues of equity, safety and representation in relation to our events, with further actions created as a result.

  • Build specific goals and targets for upcoming years.

Bass Coast has been actively listening to our community and to the conversations happening across the industry and the globe. We can see that there are no quick remedies to or no shortcuts to this challenging systemic racism, (re)learning history, unpacking how privilege and oppression shows up in the music industry, our workplaces and our lives. We recognise that the data we do collect does not account for the full picture of how Bass Coast looks, sounds, feels, and is experienced by historically and currently marginalized peoples. There is also no way to quantify the deeply personal, lifelong responsibility each of us have to examine how we have benefited from and upheld systems of white supremacy.

  • As a team, Bass Coast remains inspired by and grateful to those who have shared their knowledge, lived experience, and art with us over the years, helping to shape and transform our festival and community for the better.

  • We want you to know that we are invested in learning, listening, and amplifying.

    Contact us at info@basscoast.ca

     

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