On Saturday 24 August, Gig Buddies with Thera Trust were presented with the Skinny and Fest Magazine’s Edinburgh Festival Award for Accessibility. The project was recognised for ‘operating in the city year-round, working with local arts organisations and venues to make cultural events as accessible as possible.’ Joseph Cox, Gig Buddies Accessibility Coach says:
It’s fantastic that the barriers of autistic audience members, and people with a learning disability are being recognised.
We are beyond proud to have received this award, and to be recognised at this level for our work means so much. We work with so many incredibly generous and receptive venues and festivals, who are taking on our feedback to make the community more accessible for everyone, all while offering so many great opportunities to Gig Buddies members. But every now and then, a situation arises to remind us of why we do what we do…
Gig Buddies exists to enable people to access events they love, and one reason we hold group socials is for people to build their confidence in attending local venues, events, and festivals. For this reason, we’re extremely proud when we hear of a group of Gig Buddies members meeting up without formal, voluntary, or family support, and enjoying a day at the Edinburgh Festival.
Access needs for people in the Gig Buddies community (and everyone else!) are wide ranging. One access provision that can benefit people for a whole host of reasons is a queue skip (early access to the venue before the main crowd). During August, the brilliant team at The Edinburgh Fringe make this really easy for us and ensure it’s added as a note on all our bookings. For many reasons (some given later) it’s vital for our group.
On the last day of the festival, a group of Gig Buddies members met up to see a show. They spoke to multiple members of venue staff about the fact their tickets included an access queue skip but were never granted early access. At one point someone told them ‘Everyone here has a ticket and needs to get in’. They noted that a group of wheelchair users were granted a queue skip, while they were told to wait with the rest of the main audience. The group spoke to us about how rightfully, certain access requirements such as needing access to the front row for a wheelchair should be taken seriously, but they feel their own access needs weren’t listened to.
For someone like myself with autism, it’s good to go in early to get comfortable with the venue and the surroundings. I have a visual impairment as well, so getting towards the front would have helped.– Gig Buddies member.
I need seats with leg room, and I need to be able to find a seat far away from the speakers otherwise my hearing can be very painful. Our group was split up and the only seats left were right next to the speakers. Luckily, I had my earplugs with me, but with the queue skip I can always find the best seat for me. – Gig Buddies member.
We know from feedback that attending shows as part of a facilitated ‘Gig Buddies social’, seeing what access provisions are in place and finding out how they can benefit from them to make their experiences more enjoyable, has given people the confidence to independently access the Fringe. This is what builds confidence and achieves our goal of people independently accessing events.
Gig Buddies has been brilliant for us, they always make sure we get early access to events, festivals, and platforms. I expected to get the same on my own. It would have been good if the venue had more disability awareness.– Gig Buddies member.
I feel our needs would have been better listened to if a Gig Buddies staff member was with us.– Gig Buddies member.
This last comment is particularly disheartening for us, but in part, we can’t help but agree with it. Self-advocacy, being listened to, and importantly being believed, is something that our members routinely tell us is a huge barrier for them.
Back in March, at our ‘Gig Buddies Big Chat’, a member told us this: ‘I like Gig Buddies because they can sort out disabled access to events and I find it hard to book accessible tickets on my own.’ Other comments from that day included ‘I’m not always sure how I can find out about disabled access.’ and ‘People aren’t patient and they’re rude.’
When attending shows as a group, facilitated by a Gig Buddies staff member, we seemingly have no issue with getting the right access provisions the group needs. This recent experience of Gig Buddies members being denied this has made us question whether people’s needs are taken more seriously when someone who’s perceived to be a support or authority figure is present. Molly, Gig Buddies’ Glasgow Coordinator explains our process for organising access at group events:
Usually, I approach a member of staff, explain who we are, and they’ll tell us where to wait and come fetch us as soon as doors open. I explain that we’re a social group for adults with a learning disability and autistic adults and that we’re booked in for early access already. I’ve never had any pushback and I suspect it’s because we’re presenting ourselves as an organised group and myself a staff member with some institutional backing.– Molly, Gig Buddies Coordinator
Further to this, we have previous experience of Gig Buddies members struggling to self-advocate, but situations improving when we’ve stepped in and advocated on behalf of that person.
[Gig Buddies] has allowed me to go back to the places I was barred from.– Gig Buddies member.
We think that all of this shows that Gig Buddies can work, but for the wider aims of the project to be achieved, individuals need to know that they will be listened to. For many people, self-advocacy and explaining their barriers is a barrier in itself. Many people don’t have formal support, but nor should it be a necessity to access the things you love.
One way we’re hoping to achieve these goals in the community is by delivering Learning Disability and Autism Awareness Training as well as Accessibility Training focused on the needs of people who have a learning disability, and autistic people. We’ve been delivering these sessions for the past year and to date have trained over 100 people in front of house and customer facing roles. If you’d like to enquire about training for your organisation, please email [email protected], or call us on 07738 486 001.
We’re so incredibly proud of the work we’ve done, and the recent recognition we’ve gained is testament to that. We exist to make the ordinary… ordinary, but we can’t stop until that’s demonstrably true.
Sam Maggs
Gig Buddies Project Manager
August 2024
To read more about the amazing work Gig Buddies do in accessibility, click here.