After April 26: Words, Apologies, and Commitments

We took a few days to reflect on what happened on April 26, to confront ourselves within the collective and understand how to move forward. We’re sharing this statement to explain what happened, take responsibility where it's due, and publicly say that we are truly sorry for how things went.

In the months leading up to the event, together with EL*C, we did a site inspection of the venue and explicitly asked whether it was accessible for wheelchair users. The venue owners assured us that it was, and we trusted that information.

On the day of the event, we were faced with a different reality: the venue was not actually accessible. The stairlift, although technically up to code, was not safe. The comrades who needed to use it rightly refused to put their health at risk. It was a shock to us—we had worked under the assumption that the space was accessible to wheelchair users. In that moment, we tried to find an emergency solution by building makeshift ramps, which could only be tested by the comrades shortly before the event began. Unfortunately, the ramps were not safe, and it was therefore not possible to guarantee proper access.

At that point, with the event already underway, EL*C announced they would withdraw from the evening in solidarity with those who were excluded. They left us with the responsibility to decide how to proceed, acknowledging the logistical and financial difficulties we were facing and offering their support if we chose to go ahead with the event.

We chose not to stop the event. We know this decision caused harm, and we want to explain why stopping was not possible for us. Safffo is a self-funded collective. All of us work other jobs to support ourselves, and we organize events in our free time to create safer community spaces in a difficult city. The April 26 party was the biggest event we had ever built: we expected around 800 people, with 6 international artists and about 10 local ones, setting up three floors of the venue and facing much higher costs than usual. Canceling the event would not only have meant paying out of our own pockets—money we don’t have—but also seriously impacting all the artists who gave up other gigs to be there, some of whom traveled from abroad. Unfortunately, stopping everything was not sustainable for us, neither financially nor logistically.

Still, this doesn’t change the fact that some people were not able to attend the event, and that this is a serious shortcoming and a wound that cannot be ignored. The comrades then decided to call for a boycott, and for several hours at the start of the evening they stood outside the venue, blocking access and explaining what had happened. Some members of the Safffo team went out to try to initiate a dialogue, and it became clear that, in that moment, there was no viable solution. The picket and the confrontation were painful, but we understood and respected their motivations.

We take full responsibility for not thoroughly investigating the venue’s actual accessibility. Accessibility cannot be an afterthought or something checked “on trust.” From now on, we are committed to learning more about the structural requirements that make a space truly accessible. We will verify the accessibility of every venue we work with, with support from people who are knowledgeable about this topic.

About the venues that host our events

We know many have asked why we don’t organize events in squatted or self-managed spaces. Given the size of our events and the need to fairly compensate the people we work with, we have not yet found self-managed spaces that can support our needs. This is something we are actively reflecting on and open to discussing.

Dismantling systems of oppression—like ableism or racism—is a continuous process. Sometimes it happens through books or conversations, and sometimes it happens in painful ways, like it did this time. We are sorry that the highest cost was paid by the people who couldn’t enter. To them, we want to say we are truly sorry.