An In-Depth Talk on Harm Reduction with Bass Coast’s Stacey Forrester

Community Based

Bass Coast is festival that started from an idea to throw a party for close friends and has managed to keep that vibe intact as it grows. We’ve mentioned before that Bass Coast is a highly community focused event and it shows. From the musicians and artists, right down to crew members and attendees, the family vibe can be felt all around. The community looks out for one another and supports each other. It’s this vibe and the care for one another that Stacey’s approach for harm reduction is creating an engaged and educated community.

For Bass Coast, harm reduction is about more than giving out condoms and lube or electrolytes. It’s also about building capacity within communities to share knowledge, to recognize signs that something is wrong, and to know how to respond. It’s about fostering a sense of responsibility for one another, at the festival and beyond it. This focus they allows Bass Coast to continue it’s harm reduction well beyond the festival and helps it spread.

Recognizing that harm reduction doesn’t end when the festival does is crucial to supporting its community. Bass Coast urges an ongoing conversation about how to best keep it’s community safe. This past year they have made major emphasis on engaging the community through their social media outlets and involve DJs and performers in their messaging. Keeping the focus on all facets of harm reduction and not just substances, Bass Coast also includes safety women and the LQBTQ2 while on site, as well as how attendees treat the land the festival is held on. Things like a safe place for women, proper labeling of garbage, recyclables, and cigarette butts are just a few of the other ways Bass Coast is taking care of its community.

Anti-Oppressive

The work Stacey and her crew do at Bass Coast is part of a much larger narrative about what harm reduction can look like and can do for people. For them, it is important to talk about drugs and alcohol in a way that doesn’t disempower, marginalize, silence, or otherwise subordinate people who use drugs. It’s also important to not ignore facts about our society that can explain why some people struggle in their relationship to substances and some don’t. Stacey also says that “the bottom line is stigma and silence, and shame around drugs is KILLING people, actually every day, in BC and all over the world.”

With this information Stacey hopes that people can take away a positive example of what factual, evidenced based information about substances without ideology attached to it can do for people. Whether they are a person who drinks, takes substances in any capacity, or has friends who do – Bass Coast hopes to model these ideals through their harm reduction program. With education techniques, scientific information and technology constantly changing or improving, Stacey looks to expand on their established program, while thinking of new, meaningful ways to get their message across.