Here Are The Most Disability-Friendly Festivals You Can Attend This Summer

5th July 2019

Everyone should have the right to enjoy great music — and so it should be accessible to everyone, including wheelchair users and the disabled.

So we made it our mission to find out which festivals this summer are the most disability and wheelchair user friendly. The results are in this mock festival poster. The most disability-friendly was Glastonbury, followed closely by Latitude festival.

Take a look, and we’ll explain how we conducted our research below.

About the poster

The poster is a creative way of showing which of the main festivals is the most disability and wheelchair-friendly in Britain. We sorted them by importance just like a typical festival poster would do — with the most successful closer to the top. In our case, the ‘headliner’ (Glastonbury) was the winner.

And instead of listing support acts, we listed the amenities that the festivals have for the disabled and wheelchair users. The more amenities, the higher up the poster we put the festival.

Methodology

Our methodology was simple. We visited each of the festivals’ websites and read up on the amenities they have to assist the disabled and wheelchair users at their events.

Those amenities included:

• A complimentary personal assistant (PA) ticket to assist those who need a PA.
• A campsite that is accessible to wheelchair users.
• Wheelchair accessible showers and toilets.
• High dependency units.
• Viewing platforms for those with disabilities, wheelchairs, and their PAs.
• A wheelchair accessible shuttle-bus service.
• Disabled parking spaces and/or a disabled parking car park.
• If there’s electric and manual wheelchairs available for hire.
• If the festival offers a free British Sign Language (BSL) interpreting service.
• If there are paths running between the campsites and stages that are accessible for wheelchair users.
• If the festival is working in a partnership with a disabled charity.
• If the festival offers bar and food concessions to those with disabilities and wheelchair users.
• Electric wheelchair charging stations.
• Free medication refrigeration storage for those with disabilities.
• The number of people allowed to camp with a disabled person or wheelchair user at an accessible campsite.

There may be instances where a festival does have an amenity that we have not credited them for. If that’s the case, then it was not clearly stated on their website — otherwise we would have included it.

The purpose of this research is not to shame any of the festivals toward the bottom of the poster. On the contrary, it is great news that Britain’s biggest festivals are working to make their music accessible to all. Not to mention that some festivals are older, more well-funded, and more established than others.

We are positive about the future of festivals for those with disabilities and our wheelchair users. The great British summer festival is an important cultural event for millions, and we are positive they will be welcoming more wheelchair users to their grounds in the next year.

Check out our home page or our blog for more wheelchairs, and wheelchair related news.