Charlotte Fairbank went to the Wild Life Festival in Brighton but unfortunately, her first interaction with the festival wasn’t positive.
There was very little information on their website for disabled tickets. Charlotte had to call to buy her tickets in the end because she couldn’t buy disabled tickets online.
Although Charlotte enjoyed the actual festival there were some issues along the way. There was no separate disabled entrance and the conventional entrance wasn’t suitable for wheelchairs. The festival staff weren’t sure if there was actually a disabled entrance at all.
"The site didn’t have a dedicated disabled entrance, and there were no plastic sheets laid out on the grass where there had been bad weather."
There was good access to the accessible stage and viewing platforms. Charlotte chose not to use them as she did not want to be excluded from her friends or the actual festival. She noted that ‘one of the platforms looked like a cage’.
Not all of the festival was accessible and many food stalls were too high for her to reach making it difficult to pay. Although the toilets had good disabled facilities, there weren’t many and they were quite far from the stages. Some of the festival staff also weren’t sure where the nearest disabled toilets were.
Charlotte used public transport to get to the venue. The bus was very accessible although she waited for two and a half hours for a bus when she left the festival. She didn’t mind this because she felt it was just part of the festival experience.
She did have to find her own transport route as there was no information on the festival’s website about transport for disabled users. Luckily, Charlotte didn’t need local accommodation because there was no information on the website for local and accessible accommodation.
"Standard bus to and from site was accessible, and a positive experience overall."
Charlotte was lucky enough to have good weather. There didn’t seem to be a plan B if the weather turned bad. She would go to the festival again, especially if the website is updated with proper information for disabled visitors. She also said they could improve the accessibility of the food stalls and have more knowledgeable staff. And let’s hope of course the weather will be ok next time too.
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