Lovebox, Field Day, High Voltage, LED And More Sign Access Charter | UK Festival Awards To Include Access In Assessment Criteria
- Festival Republic to fund Access and Disability Equality Training bursary for UK Festival Awards “Best Grassroots Festival” winner
- London’s Tower Hamlets provide funding for Victoria Park festivals to become accessible to disabled music lovers
18th July 2011, London:- Attitude is Everything are celebrating a glorious summer with two significant achievements that will mean festivals become more accessible to Deaf and disabled people.For the first time, the UK Festival Awards have included access in their award assessment criteria for this year. Recognition by the UK Festival Awards of this criteria is yet another step forward in continuing to improve the live experience for Deaf and disabled music lovers. Continuing their support to Attitude is Everything this year is Festival Republic’s Managing Director Melvin Benn who has provided a £1000 bursary for Access and Disability Equality Training to UK Festival Awards ‘Best Grassroots Festival’ winners. This will provide the opportunity for smaller or younger festivals to address the requirements of Deaf and disabled festival-goers, performers and staff.Thanks to a partnership project with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, every festival that takes place on Victoria Park now has to adhere to Attitude is Everything’s Charter of Best Practice as an “Event Standard”. The Local Authority also provided funding to the organisers to train staff and for Deaf and disabled volunteers to assess their events from a Disability Access perspective. As a result, High Voltage, Field Day, Lovebox, Under Age, The Apple Cart and LED – London Electronic Dance - festivals have signed up to the Charter and pledged to improve accessibility to Deaf and disabled music lovers.Attitude is Everything’s ground-breaking Charter of Best Practice was created in 2000 to assist the music industry in understanding the requirements of Deaf and disabled people at music venues and festivals, building equality into the strategic thinking for events, and fostering a culture of proactively providing an equal experience for disabled people. Divided into three levels – Bronze, Silver and Gold – each one has conditions that must be fulfilled. Live music venues and festivals are expected to work through these levels and aim for the Gold, which is a commitment to achieving Best Practice in Access and Attitude over a period of five years. The ethos of the Charter is that Deaf and disabled people should be able to be as independent as they want to be at live music venues and festivals.These Victoria-Park based festivals join another 35 live music venues and festivals around the country, including Brixton Academy, Wembley Arena, Royal Albert Hall, and Reading and Leeds Festivals, that have pledged to improve their access and work towards the Gold benchmarks. During the process, they create a realistic Action Plan of how they will achieve the three stages of the Charter and make a commitment to go beyond the law and achieve Best Practice. They then share experiences with the network of Charter Venue and Festivals Managers.As Charter festivals, the latest additions from Victoria Park will continue to receive the support of Attitude is Everything throughout their lifespan - as long as they remain committed to the Charter.Venues and festivals that sign up to the Charter of Best Practice also thereby agree to be ‘mystery shopped’ by Attitude is Everything’s team of Deaf and disabled gig-goers and musicians, who give feedback on each live music event visited. This feedback enables Attitude is Everything to assess how accessible live music venues and festivals are, as well as examining how they are managed from a customer’s perspective. This information is fed back to managers so that they can make improvements. Attitude is Everything also offer Disability Equality Training and undertake Access Audits to advise on changes that may be required.Quotes:Festival Republic Bursary To Best Grassroots UK Festival Awards WinnerMelvin Benn, Manager Director of Festival Republic: “At Festival Republic events we want everyone to be able to participate, feel safe, and be part of the crowd and we work closely with Attitude Is Everything to achieve this. I am very pleased to be funding the first Access training bursary to the future winners of the Grassroots Festival Award so they will be able to benefit from this invaluable support.” For further info/notes to editors please see the access guides available here – www.festivalrepublic.com/disabledJames Drury, Managing Director of UK Festival Awards: “Grassroots festivals are real labours of love created on very tight budgets, so the chance to get vital advice and training from the experts at Attitude is Everything, thanks to the generosity of Festival Republic, will be really valuable for the winner of our Grassroots Festival Award. Access for Deaf and disabled people is an important criterion that our judges look out for when visiting festivals. I feel proud that Attitude is Everything chose our Awards to distribute this bursary.” Suzanne Bull, Chief Executive Officer, Attitude is Everything: “The fact that the UK Festival Awards has included Access as a criteria this year is a major breakthrough in making sure that the music industry continues to meet the requirements of their Deaf and disabled customers, as well as raising the general public’s awareness of the issues that Deaf and disabled people face at music festivals across the UK. I’m delighted that, thanks to the foresight and the generosity of Melvin Benn at Festival Republic, we are able to offer one of our training bursaries to a new, small festival. It means that this festival with have the opportunity to sign to our Charter of Best Practice and have all the support it needs to improve Deaf and disabled people’s access to its festival.”Victoria Park Festivals FundingPam McCrea, Senior Arts & Events Manager at Tower Hamlets: “Tower Hamlets Arts and Events are committed to the Charter of Best Practice and have achieved bronze level for the Council run Paradise Gardens event. To further our committed to Best Practice we engaged Attitude is Everything to work with commercial event’s organisers presenting major events in the borough. Attitude is Everything has successfully worked with major event organisers to sign up to the Charter of Best Practice. This has included Attitude providing information, training and action planning sessions, with regular progress meetings and on-call support. The intention is for the events to reach a Bronze level of charter or above during the 2011 festival season. The event organisers have be responsive and have fed back to us how valuable the training and guidance Attitude is Everything provided has been , additionally they have also reported a increase in ticket sales to date from disabled patrons due to the new measures they have been implementing.”Tom Baker and Marcus Weedon, heads of promotions company EatYourOwnEars: “Field Day, The Apple Cart and Underage Festival are delighted to sign up to the Charter of Best Practice. We look forward to working together with Attitude Is Everything to make our festivals accessible to more people.”Julian Butterfield, Head of Operations at Lovebox: “We are delighted to have signed up to The Charter of Best Practice. Our disabled customers’ feedback to our event plans all generally seem a lot happier with the service we are to provide, and this positive sentiment has circulated and therefore increased the attendance of disabled patrons. Sales of tickets to disabled customers are roughly double what they were in 2010. High Voltage sales are up on 2010 as well. We have also gleaned the added operational benefit of improving our own methodology on disabled access.”Ruth Dronfield, Project Assistant for LED, Field Day and Underage Festival’s production company, Loud Sound: “Working with Attitude Is Everything has encouraged us to take a fresh look at the facilities we provide at festivals we manage, helping our clients to put on great shows, accessible to everyone. It has been a very useful and structured process and one we are looking forward to continuing as more of our festival clients sign up to the Charter.” About Attitude Is EverythingAttitude is Everything improves Deaf and disabled people's access to live music by working in partnership with audiences, artists and the music industry to implement a Charter of Best Practice across the UK. Having worked with live industry leaders such as Academy Music Group, Glastonbury Festival, Festival Republic, Mama Group, Wembley Arena and Ticketmaster, Attitude is Everything is fast becoming the UK authority on access to music venues.-ENDS-Live Music Venues And Festivals Signed To The Charter:VenuesAberdeen Press & Journal ArenaBand on the Wall (Manchester)Bournemouth International CentreBrighton DomeBristol AcademyBrixton Academy (London)Cambridge JunctionCamden Centre (London)Cardiff International ArenaColchester Arts CentreEarls Court & Olympia (London)Glasgow AcademyHallam FM Arena (Sheffield)Islington AcademyKing's Hall Exhibition & Conference Centre (Belfast)KOKO(London)Leadmill (Sheffield)National Indoor Arena (Birmingham)Nottingham ArenaOdyssey Arena (Belfast)Roadmender (Northampton)Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (Glasgow)Shepherds Bush Empire (London)The Brighton CentreThe LG Arena (Birmingham)The Roundhouse (Camden)The Sage GatesheadThe Royal Albert Hall (London)Wembley Arena (London)FestivalsLiberty FestivalGuilfestBig Green GatheringReading FestivalLeeds FestivalLatitudeHigh VoltageField DayLoveboxUnder AgeThe Apple CartLED – London Electronic DanceFor More InformationName PRHugo Mintzhugo@namepr.co.uk / 020 8357 7305Kayleigh Watsonkayleigh@namepr.co.uk / 020 8357 7303