‘The patriarchy can’t dance with us’

The music festival Statement was initiated as a response to sexual violence towards women at other festivals, and during the work of creating safe festival, separatism became feminist strategy. In this paper we analyse media reporting from Statement, with focus on desire for safety. Using psychoanalytical discourse theory, different materials, focusing emotive language fantasmatic narratives. We argue that in representations, safety is linked enjoyment, opportunities be oneself, predictability lack conflict. Safety also strongly represented security absent man continuously present articulations. While representations tend reconstruct heterosexual Woman universal experience, patriarchy, common ‘we’ might nevertheless spur political mobilisation.