Consent Kitties coming to electronic music festival near you

A group of volunteers will be touring around the Maritimes' electronic music circuit, educating festival-goers about consent.

Peter Nicholson said the Consent Kitties got their start a few years ago when a friend was organizing an event.

“As we were sending out invites, a few people said they probably weren't coming out because they've had negative experiences at dance events before with people not necessarily following the rules of consent,” he told NEWS 95.7's The Sheldon MacLeod Show. 

“What he came up with was having a bunch of his friends calling themselves the Consent Kitties. Basically we were just at the event talking to people about the importance consent, keeping an eye out for non-consensual situations and intervening if we had to.”

It wasn't long before the demand for their services grew.

Nicholson said, before an event, their trained volunteers have conversations with attendees about consent and hand out cards, which have information on one side and say either “Can I dance with you?” or “Can I kiss you?” on the other side.

“If it's a crazy loud rave, screaming in someone's ear isn't the most romantic way to ask someone to kiss you, so being able to flash one of these is a great way to practice good consent without having to scream over the music,” he said.

Clad in glow-in-the-dark cat ears and bright clothing, he said the uniform helps them both stick out and blend in.

“Wearing cat ears is just sort of the fashion within the culture,” he explained. “While the Consent Kitties do have specific cat ears on so people know it's us when they are talking to us, we saw it as valuable to have other people who may be seen as Consent Kitties.”

“If someone is considering doing something not consensual and they're looking around, if they see a dozen people wearing cat ears, some of them might be on duty, some of them might not, but that's an extra reason to maybe second-guess doing something like that.”

When a Consent Kitty spots a situation, they pull the person aside and have a conversation. 

Nicholson said most people are receptive to the educational chat. If they're not, security is called in to handle them, which could result in them being removed from the event, but that's a last resort.

“If we were just kicking people out every time, that's a way to make your community a lot smaller, but not a lot healthier,” he explained. “We want to have a conversation with someone so that, not only does this never happen again, but they're becoming an ally in the future.”

The Consent Kitties are in high demand and they're limited to how many events they can do.

In fact, Nicholson said their volunteers are fully booked this summer, but they'd still love to pass along their expertise with those who are interested.

“Contacting us on our Facebook group is the best way to get in touch and even if we aren't able to attend the event, we love sharing any kind of education and resources we have,” he said.

“We're not the only people on the scene doing things like this, and we fully encourage anyone else to get involved and do it as well.”