We want the Tangopostale festival to be a place where people can meet and share where everyone feels welcome and safe. To do this, we are committed to a process of awareness of discriminatory behavior and against all forms of gender-based violence.
Different forms of communication are used at the festival to bring our values and commitment to your attention and a relay/listening team is also available to help you if needed.
If you witness or experience inappropriate words or behavior, come and speak to us. We are here to listen to you and will take steps to ensure safety, intervene, stating what the law says about the situation and, if necessary, imposing sanctions on the person(s) exhibiting unacceptable behavior.
Festival Charter
The festival promotes values of conviviality and openness to others, without discrimination.
Tango is the fruit of diversity, and this mix is the source of its richness.
In this spirit, we reject any discrimination whatever its origin.
The festival welcomes people of all ages, genders, disabilities, physical appearances, religions, skin colours and dance levels.
Furthermore, the festival aims to be friendly, respectful, and a facilitator for meeting with others and even oneself.
The festival will denounce and may refuse access to people who behave in a discriminatory, violent, sexist, racist, homophobic or transphobic manner.
This dynamic is not new: from the beginning, thanks to the network structure of the Toulouse associations which initiated the creation of the festival, all kinds of proposals have been welcomed into our programming to promote a friendly and caring tango.
- The big evening of the first edition in 2009 at the Bikini, an emblematic venue on the Toulouse scene, gave pride of place to the dancing couple Martin Maldonado and Maurizio Ghella for a demonstration thanks to the initiative of the Endorfina association, run by Marie-Pierre Gabis and Éric Schmitt.
- On two occasions, the festival has chosen to invite exclusively female dance orchestras. In 2010, La Malenas played on the main stage for the milonga at the Jean Mermoz Municipal Hall, putting the skill and virtuosity of these musicians in the spotlight. Another all female orchestra, Tanguango, from Serbia, played for dancers at the Sing Sing Dance Hall in 2023.
- More open invitation initiatives from ballroom dancers have been thought of and tested over the years: first white scarves, then white or fuchsia bows to pin to the chest, then smile badges from 2016.
- As far as dance is concerned, since its early years Tangopostale has hosted a wide variety of courses in order to diversify the forms of tango practiced, including double-role workshops, tango-contact, etc.
- In 2022 and 2023 we hosted the Milonga Papillon, an inclusive milonga for disabled and able-bodied dancers in partnership with the associations Simon de Cyrène, Proyecto Auris and Montañas de Tango, as well as tangotherapy workshops.
- As part of Café Tango, we organized in 2022 a meeting around queer tango with Federico Perea and Céline Tiberghien, and in 2023 two exciting tango talks: "Tango libre: the fight against sexism and inequalities in the world of Argentine tango" by Veronica Toumanova and "Mirada de Mujer", on tango lyrics written and composed by women today, presented by the publisher Vanina Steiner.
- We work year after year to move towards parity in the artists programmed, women being still largely underrepresented among DJs and tango orchestras in milongas and festivals.
A brief reminder of the law:
Violence occurs by degrees: from behaviour, to outrage, to insult, to harassment, to attack and ultimately to sexual assault.
Sexual assault or attempted sexual assault (penal code section 3 article 222):
Sexual assault is a sexual attack committed with violence, coercion, threat or surprise (i.e. without consent) on one or more of these five areas: buttocks, genitals, breasts, mouth, between the thighs.
Sexual assault is physical contact of a sexual nature between the victim and the perpetrator. The constraint may be physical or moral.
It is not necessary for there to be acts of violence to qualify an act as sexual assault. It is sufficient that the victim did not give consent, or that he or she was not able to give a clear answer. (ARTICLE 222-22)Penalty incurred in the event of the crime of assault or attempted sexual assault:
Sexual assaults other than rape (with penetration) are punishable by five years' imprisonment and a fine of €75,000.
In all cases, the name of the person convicted of sexual assault will be entered in the file of perpetrators of sexual offences. In the event of conviction, the offence will be entered in the perpetrator’s criminal record. (ARTICLE 222-27)
