Glastonbury’s Shangri-La will be featuring an area dedicated to exploring and redefining “intersectional positive masculinity”, HuffPost UK can announce.
Shangri-La is well-known for providing the festival’s best night life, but for 2019, the area will be open during the day too.
The new micro-venue, The Shed, will serve as a space where visitors will be encouraged to leave “the old notions, stereotypes and the restraints of masculinity at the door”.
Throughout the daytime, it will be a safe space with a chilled area for reflection – and free tea.
Talks will feature speakers including musician Professor Green and there will also be an anonymous booth for people to “let go and drop off” anything about masculinity that doesn’t serve them anymore.
The Shed will be open to all festival attendees, regardless of gender.
Shangri-La art director Moses Powers has explained why the venue is an important addition to the festival, in a blog published on HuffPost UK.
He writes: “In 2019 toxic masculinity is an important topic for debate, one which can, for some men, seem like an attack on the masculine expression, or on themselves as men.
“If you’re a white, straight, cis gendered man then it is possible you have never felt the need to question your masculinity.
“However, traditional masculine stereotype has become outdated, and the idea of suppressing emotions and vulnerabilities, of trying to fit into one mould of what it means to be a man is harmful and unfulfilling.”
Adding that on “a personal level”, he has used being creative to “develop my understanding of what it means to be a man, when not identifying with the ideals that were forced upon me”, Moses says: “Growing up, I was constantly trying to over-portray my masculinity due to insecurities I had surrounding my sexuality.
“Masculinity has been something I have tried to fit into and re-confirm within myself for acceptance and also safety.”
The concept was partially inspired by The Sistxrhood, an all femme-identifying safe space, which opened at Shangri-La in 2016.
“We are inspired by their work and positive approach,” Moses adds. “We want to face these issues head on and approach them from a place of positivity and begin to redefine masculinity for the modern age.”
The exterior will look like a classic garden shed, but upon entering, guests will see positive murals and artwork by British artist Adam Neate.
The Shed has been created as part of a partnership between Shangri-La, CALM, the men’s suicide prevention charity, Book of Man, who run events and talks to inspire modern men, and Lyrix Organix, who run educational youth led event programmes.
The evening programme will be filled with live music, performance, spoken word and DJs including Foreign Beggars, Mc Dizraeli and StrangeLove.
Tickets for this year’s Glastonbury sold out in record time, but fans who didn’t get their hands on some can still get a piece of the festival.
The ShangrilART project sees artists who work on Shangri-La sell limited edition prints, with a portion of the profits being put back into the event, to fund future installations.
Read Moses’ full blog here.