Swiftogeddon shows how nightlife can be safe and inclusive
White Ribbon UK’s Communications Officer Savannah Jenkins is both a White Ribbon Champion and a self-confessed Taylor Swift fan. After attending Swiftogeddon, a Taylor Swift themed club night, at the Clapham Grand in London back in April, she noticed something was different. Amongst her friends and with other attendees, so many women reported feeling so much safer compared to ‘typical’ nights out.
Savannah spoke to Dave Fawbert, the founder of Swiftogeddon, to find out how these events are transforming the night-time economy, and providing proof that nights out can be inclusive and safe for all.
By Savannah Jenkins
It’s a Friday night and the first few notes of All Too Well (Taylor’s Version), a slow-burning power ballad, play from the speakers. I look out at the sea of sparkles and spot my flatmate coming back from the bar.
In the few minutes I was left alone on the dancefloor to dance and sing along, I noticed how much safer I felt compared to other nights out. I was at ease; I hadn’t thought about my safety or my flatmate’s safety as she went up to the bar alone. Examining the crowd closer, everyone looked to be genuinely enjoying themselves, smiling, despite the gut-wrenching bridge we were about to cross together.
This is Swiftogeddon, the UK’s official “Taylor Swift club night”, and, I realised after attending one myself, it’s also a chance for women to experience nights out without the fear of violence or the threat of this fear of violence.
“I wish every night out could be like that,” said Jade, 25, who attended a Swiftogeddon event in Chester last year. “For the first-time in a long while, I spent my night out not thinking about mine and my friends’ safety and focused on enjoying myself.”
Constant risk mitigation is part of nights out for women
Phone, keys, wallet and live location on. This the typical start of a night out for many women, followed up by an ironically light-hearted text “just sharing in case it’s not the right vibe” to your girlfriends, your sisters, your mum, your partner.
Not only have we become responsible for mitigating risks to our safety, but we also tend to minimise the real dangers we face. From a young age, we conduct this type of risk assessment every day until it becomes a reflex, a thing we brush off as a normalised quirk of going about our day-to-day lives.
The “vibes” aren’t off. We’re genuinely scared for our safety when we go out.
A street survey of nightlife patrons (N = 307, aged 18+) on a night out in an English city, found that 58% of respondents said they’d experienced sexual violence whilst on a night out, with higher rates among females surveyed. In another poll, conducted by YouGov, 1 in 10 women said they’ve had their drink spiked.
The risks and burden of mitigating these risks are even greater for minoritised girls, disabled girls and LGBT+ girls, who are more likely to experience public sexual harassment.
The difference of a Swiftogeddon night out, for everyone
Since the Taylor Swift-themed nights launched, women and girls have eagerly shared their feedback with Dave Fawbert and his team, who founded Swiftogeddon and continues to DJ sets for their events across the UK. “People come up to me and say things like ‘I have never been to a night like this before. I was so relaxed.’ or ‘I let my guard down and just enjoyed myself!’”
While they’re jubilant and giddy, as I was when debriefing my sisters on how great it felt to be there, what we’re really saying is, well, awful: I had fun because nothing bad happened to me or my friends.
A former label manager and founder of other successful club nights, Dave is intimately familiar with the world of night clubs. Even still, the testimonials from women comparing the space he provides at Swiftogeddon to ‘typical’ nights out have been revealing in our understanding of women’s experiences of a night out.
“Women were telling me they would get groped or [would] have to minimise their bodies body because they don’t know who’s behind them,” says Dave.
It was only until Swiftogeddon that Dave and the vendors he works with to deliver these events, which often run early into the morning, noticed the positive experiences for all involved, men and women, ‘Swifties’ or not. “I remember doing a show in Nottingham. The manager came down and told me that it was the nicest crowd they’d ever had in the venue.”
And despite the club night’s growing success across the country, with shows drawing anywhere between 1,500 to 2,000 people in cities like London and Manchester, they’ve been able to maintain the fun-for-all and carefree atmosphere. “A few more boyfriends coming along, a few more straight guys who’ve discovered her have come along, but it’s very much on the terms where they don’t come in and change the atmosphere. They come in and adjust their behaviour according to what we’ve already set out.”
The friendly environment offered by Dave and his team at Swiftogeddon isn’t simply a result of the unusual night club gender dynamics. “Many of her songs are about being an outsider. We’re not the popular kids, so it meant that naturally her audience is nice,” explains Dave, who credits the vulnerability in the artist’s songwriting as a contributing factor in what makes this night club experience unique.
Swiftogeddon was named to capture the “apocalyptic explosion of Swift” that occurs on the dancefloor, but what if it’s also a transformative eruption of healthier gender norms? Because here people are encouraged to embrace and celebrate emotional vulnerability, compassion, empathy – traits that are usually stifled in night venues where harmful cultures promote hegemonic masculinity, favouring dominance, toughness, and power.
Another reality is possible
As we talk, Dave tells me how he’s expanded the DJ team to include more women and, in doing so, has noticed the challenges facing women in his field. “I’m not pretending to be a crusader,” he insists as he shares how he supports colleagues dealing with sexist remarks from men. One colleague was setting up her equipment for a gig when a man at the venue asked her if she knew how everything worked.
Dave’s right, he’s not a crusader. He has adopted behaviours of what men should be doing: someone who listens to, believes and cheers on women. I tell him that’s a key component to White Ribbon UK’s definition of allyship.
“I only wanted to have these club nights at credible venues because she’s a credible artist,” he says, unknowingly providing another great example of allyship and how men can break down presumed expectations about gender norms.
What might be brushed off as super fandom by some, is really a man with a reputable profile in UK’s night club scene championing a female artist, one who’s faced well-documented examples of sexism, from victim blaming by the media to sexual assault.
Supporting women in their careers and encouraging other men to see their contributions as equally valuable to those of men performing is not only allyship in action, but it also encourages positive masculine traits. White Ribbon UK Trustee, Stephen Burrell, wrote an excellent article on the transformative effects supporting women and girls in football can have for men and boys in light of the Lionesses’ success during the 2022 UEFA Women's Euros. (Readers can download our Euro 2024 Fixtures Guide to help tackle sexism in football).
Letting our guard down on a night out shouldn’t be an exception to the norm. Women want to go out and enjoy themselves whether Taylor Swift is on the setlist or not. What Swiftogeddon has shown is that another reality is possible when nights out are built for everyone’s enjoyment.
Yes, these nights tend to draw largely female crowds, however, the answer isn’t to exclude men. It’s about removing harmful attitudes and behaviours that are allowed to occur in a misogynistic culture engrained in the nighttime economy.
We can change this, it starts with men.