policies

Vendor Contract

As a stall holder at SFE you agree to the principles and aim of the event to be as welcoming, open, inclusive, and friendly as we can at all times. We want everyone to have a good time at SFE events, guests, staff, venue staff and stall holders, as well as the following points.

All fees must be paid in advance of the event.
Products will be clearly labeled & priced at all times.
To provide products that will not cause harm other than in a manner intended.
No lewd comments, aggressive or abusive behaviour will be tolerated towards any persons attending the SFE or staff.
Consent must be gained before any demonstration or interaction where applicable.
Any demonstrations should be of a mild, light & modest nature.
To reduce the risk of tripping accidents, stallholders must keep their area and the immediate vicinity clear of anything that might obstruct pedestrian traffic and cause tripping accidents.
Stallholders must comply with the SFE online bookings and payment procedures.
That the stallholder has the full legal and beneficial ownership of the goods that they offer for sale and that their ownership is free of any encumbrances;
That the stallholder will not engage in any false or misleading conduct including, but not limited to, selling counterfeit goods or mislabeling goods.
The SFE gives no guarantees regarding possible sales or visitor numbers.
The SFE is not liable for any damage to the goods or other property, theft of the goods or other property of the stallholder.
Traders supplying their own infrastructure must ensure that it is good quality and weighted appropriately.
Stallholders must operate strictly within the marked boundaries of the stall site that has been allocated to them.
Stalls must be setup in a professional manner (If you require advice please get in touch) and setup must be complete 15 minutes before the doors open.

Insurance policy

The Southampton Fetish Emporium has its own Professional indemnity insurance for event organisers which covers public and products liability insurance for vendors and attendees, please contact us if you wish to see a full copy of the policy.

TICKET PURCHASES

Purchased tickets are non-refundable and upon purchase all attendees are agreeing to adhere to all SFE terms & conditions as stated herein.

Entry

We reserve the right in our absolute discretion at any time without prior notice to refuse admission to or expel and/or ban any Attendee who, in our opinion: a. has breached or is likely to breach any of these Conditions

b.Person/s that are behaving or is likely to behave in an unacceptable or unruly manner or in a manner likely to cause offence to other Attendees; and/or is abusive in any form towards the staff of the SFE & 1865, and, any ban we may impose may, at our option, relate to the SFE and/or any other event in the UK and may be temporary or permanent.

Consent, Safety & Reporting Policy

We take consent and safety very seriously and this policy has been co-opted to deal with instances of unacceptable behaviour.

The policy framework was originally published by [@NotForSofties] and has been shared with their permission and altered to be appropriate for our events. It has been made public for transparency. Applies to Southampton Fetish Emporium as well as all online activities relevant to these events including FetLife groups.

Examples of Unacceptable Behaviours

Assault of any kind; physical/sexual/verbal.
Disrespecting attendees or event/venue staff.
Displays of racism/homophobia/transphobia/queerphobia.
Any behaviour/play that has not been enthusiastically consented to.
Refusing to take no for an answer.
Attending under the influence of drugs.
Not accepting or following a volunteer/organiser’s instruction.
Shouting, swearing, name-calling, abusive language.

How to Report Unacceptable Behaviour

Please report any behaviour as soon as practicable to the hosts or another member of the crew. If you require immediate help and they can’t be found quickly, please speak with the venue staff. All unacceptable behaviour reports will be investigated and actioned where appropriate. Reports can be made at any time; for practical reasons please understand we are able to intervene and act more effectively if it’s reported soon as possible after it’s happened.

It can be more difficult to deal with an incident after the event but I/we take late reports just as seriously.

What we do with reports

Each report will be reviewed and all parties will be spoken with where possible so an informed decision can be made on how to proceed. In cases where either party are close to the host then the host will reach out to organiser colleagues and seek a neutral third party to review the report - whether a requested person from the parties involved or a suitable person identified from the community. All reports are kept on file for future reference for as long as Southampton Fetish Emporium is active.

Consequences of Unacceptable Behaviour

Many things can be dealt with by nipping it in the bud and setting a ‘norm’ for what’s acceptable/expected. Where more is required, We have a structure in how we aim to deal with consent violations in an equitable way. It may vary on the individual circumstances and the severity of the behaviour, but in principle, we follow these guidelines:

Current single violation - automatically on an unpublished watch list. Depending on the severity, the person may also be spoken to/‘read the riot act’, offered education on consent and a second chance, a first or final warning, or, in the most serious cases, an outright ban. We may ask the individual to wait an appropriate amount of time before re-attending to allow appropriate mitigations to be completed (put on a timeout).
Current multiple violations – an outright ban and placement on a banned list. While I/we believe in education some behaviours/violations are too serious to tolerate.
Minor infractions will be dealt with by talking to the offender in the first instance. In the event of multiple minor infractions, we will access someone’s suitability to continue event attendance. There will be warnings but unless there is immediate improvement in all areas raised then they will be removed/banned from the event.

Historic Allegations

Some people become known to us with prior allegations that didn’t occur at our events. We would rather be pre-emptive to avoid problems occurring.

We seek to be fair but recognise historic allegations can be a potential red flag so we will deal with them as follows:

Single historic 2nd hand allegation, unable to verify - no action
Multiple historic 2nd hand allegations, unable to verify - person on our radar via unpublished watch list
Single first-hand account - each case will be dealt with depending on the severity of the offence and appropriate action will be taken where necessary.
More than one first-hand account and the person will be excluded while an enquiry is conducted until a conclusion is reached. The results of the enquiry will determine future attendance or permanent exclusion.
There may be specific instances where we deem it appropriate to ask a person to not attend an event/be banned if we believe they are a risk to themselves or other guests.

Rehabilitation

We believe in the possibility of rehabilitation but acknowledge that this must be approached with extreme caution.

When there is a one-off instance of poor behaviour: The individual will be advised of their infraction and will be expected to amend their behaviour promptly, offering an apology where requested from the injured party.

Where a ban/exclusion has occurred: If the individual has taken the time and space to address their issues, has shown genuine remorse and where the injured party has consented, we will look to allow a person to reintegrate into events.

Reporting the host/organiser

Should a guest have a complaint against the host/organiser then an impartial third party should be consulted to undertake addressing the situation and should be contacted as soon as is practicable and a report made in the instance of a host/organiser infraction.

Our Ethos

We act on consent violation cases wider than those reported to us at our own events. We liaise with other organisers around the country and are members of the UK Safety Alerts group. We are also active members of a regional organisers Discord group which shares information about problematic individuals. Liaison with said group will take place as a matter of course for each report. The level of detail shared with this group will be agreed with the reporter. As a matter of course, disciplinary actions taken (e.g. timeout/ban/education interventions) will be shared to allow others to make informed decisions on the risks for their own events.

All reports will be respected and taken seriously

We will endeavour to find the most suitable action within the power we have. We are not professionals in assault and will signpost suitable help where requested. That said, I/we choose to voluntarily run events and are accountable for our own policies and how we manage reports. I/we can’t stop consent violations from happening but can minimise and mitigate the risk of them; and where they do happen, seek to deal with all parties respectfully, and make firm but fair decisions in the best interests of a healthy kink community.

This policy will be updated and amended where necessary on an ad-hoc basis.