Rob Dixon, Integrated Campaign Officer at Irwin Mitchell LLP kindly forwarded this blog to us.  We welcome research conducted through Irwin Mitchell’s Access All Areas campaign.  Thanks Rob for this.

Access All Areas – Ensuring Festivals Are Open To Everyone

Nothing says British summertime these days quite like the festival season, with the number of events being held up and down the UK growing every year and thousands of people flocking to fields to watch their favourite bands.

For many, festivals are as much about a communal spirit and people coming together as they are the actual entertainment on offer, but at Irwin Mitchell we have been keen to find out whether such events really are as inclusive as they hope to be.

We’ve launched the Access All Areas campaign with a simple goal – to review disability access to festivals and other major gigs to consider the experience for music fans who require specialist support to attend.

Our campaign involves representatives from Irwin Mitchell’s Serious Injury team, who specialise in helping those with serious disabilities to regain their independence, joining forces with clients to assess all aspects of the process including:

· Whether festival and venue websites are designed with accessibility in mind

· The ticket booking process and information available support disabled visitors
· General accessibility at the events, including viewing platforms, merchandise and other amenities
· Staffing levels and their understanding of needs of disabled visitors
· Transport to and from the venue, as well as any specialist parking support
· On-site accommodation or advice on nearby hotels and facilities

While we are hopeful this will highlight how so many events are properly catering for all needs, we’re also keen to discover what else can be done to better improve such events for everyone who is attending.

Music festivals are a fantastic rite of passage which everyone should be able to enjoy, which is one of the reasons why we are sponsoring the fantastic Chase Park Festival being held in Gateshead on August 8th.

With Irish punk-pop legends Ash headlining, the open-air festival specialises in providing access facilities for deaf and disabled audiences, artists and volunteers and is one of three festivals to achieve the Gold level of Attitude is Everything’s Charter of Best Practice.

Chase Park is a great example of ensuring that everyone can enjoy the festival experience and we hope that our Access All Areas research will provide pointers on how other events can follow suit.

John Davis, Partner and specialist serious injury lawyer at Irwin Mitchell

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For more information go to their website campaign page:

http://www.irwinmitchell.com/newsandmedia/2015/june/access-all-areas-stage-set-for-review-of-disability-support-at-uk-festivals-and-concerts-jq-198984