The entire reason for building the Woolly Good partnership was to come together to celebrate community and belonging, but we acknowledge that festival spaces can feel challenging for many reasons. We are committed to making The Woolly Good Gathering (TWGG) a welcoming and safe space for everyone by being transparent about how we view the importance of diversity and equality, and what we are doing to build inclusivity and equity.

In any engagement with Woolly Good and at The Woolly Good Gathering, we want everyone to feel safe and respected.  We have a zero-tolerance approach to any kind of discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity – including but not limited to skin colour, country of origin, refugee status or religion; discrimination on the basis of sexuality or gender identity; discrimination on the basis of disability; discrimination on the basis of neurodiversity. 

We happen to be a group consisting of Scots by choice, proud rainbow allies, people of colour and neurodiverse parents but these experiences are not important: what matters most is that we care for everyone in our community.  

- - -

Our work is particularly informed by the principles of BIPOC in Fiber. We seek to celebrate and increase representation of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour in the yarn community by inviting BIPOC vendors and speakers to TWGG. Our work also responds to the recommendations of ‘Making Changes in Craft’ (2021) – the final report of the Craft Expertise project by Dr Karen Patel. This includes focusing on social justice and equality, having a clear code of conduct about racism and microaggressions, removing barriers to participation, and providing financial grants to vendors and speakers from underrepresented groups. 

Prejudice and discrimination exist everywhere – including in the knitting community, whether we like to acknowledge this or not. We have a collective responsibility to make Woolly Good a welcoming community and challenging discriminatory behaviour is part of that. 

At The Gathering event, if you experience / observe behaviour or language which concerns you, please interrupt and challenge it (if you feel safe to do so) and report it to a WGG partner (Alison, Alyson, Gergely, Melinda, Solveigh, Susan) or a member of Summerhall staff. If you see inappropriate or trolling comments online, please report to Instagram and let us know so we can take safeguarding actions too. 

We understand that reporting discrimination can feel frightening.  We are committed to listening seriously to any issues raised, including discriminatory microaggressions, slurs, gestures and behaviours, both intentional and unintentional. We will respect confidentiality and investigate objectively as far as it is possible, taking appropriate action and following up with external bodies where necessary.