Reclaim the Night

[1] The inspiration came from marches that had taken place in America throughout the 70s, such as in Philadelphia, 1975, when Susan 'Sue' Alexander Speeth was murdered walking home from work, or in San Francisco, 1978, following a conference organised by the radical feminist group Women Against Violence and Pornography in Media.

It marched on City Hall and was made up of women from a variety of organisations including Belfast Rape Centre and Stranmillis College.

[9] Al Garthwaite attributed the reduction in activity to two issues: "gradually the original activists started to get jobs and just had less time and there was also a general climate of repression as Thatcherism began to bite".

[20] On 25 November 2017, hundreds of women — inspired by the #MeToo movement — marched across the United Kingdom in London, Bristol and Newcastle.

[11][21][22] In 2021, Reclaim the Night Leeds tried to stage a vigil in response to the death of Sarah Everard, but this was stopped by police; the protest turned virtual and took place online.

[24] In 1978, Reclaim the Night marches were held in the Australia for the first time, first taking place in Perth and Sydney, with Melbourne following in 1979.

[25] Events aimed to "take back the night" took place in India in response to the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder.

[27] In 2024, thousands of women and men in West Bengal marched for several "Meyera Raat Dokhol Koro" events (the Bengali translation of Reclaim the Night) in protest of the 2024 Kolkata rape and murder incident.

The show took place in an outdoor car park on the edge of Leeds' managed red light zone.