This year, we have the honour of presenting the award to a new winner, chosen by Gig Buddies members. Thanks to local Edinburgh culture magazines, The Skinny and Fest Magazine for reaching out to us and having us involved with this years ‘Bestie Awards’.
When we were first approached about presenting the award, The Skinny told us:
“As we aren’t access specialists, we don’t feel that we’re the best people to decide the winner of the Accessibility award. We wanted to partner with people with lived experience to decide this, and since Gig Buddies is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year and won the inaugural Accessibility Award at The Besties, we thought it might be a nice tie-in.”
We strongly feel that this opportunity encapsulates two of Thera Trust’s Mission and Impact Pillars, ‘Lived Experience Leadership’ and ‘Advocacy and Influencing Change’. Presenting this award presents a fantastic opportunity for members of Gig Buddies with Thera Trust to highlight the barriers that people with learning disabilities face in accessing the Edinburgh Festivals, while celebrating people in the community who are excelling in helping remove those barriers.
So, without further ado, presenting the winner of The Edinburgh Festival ‘Bestie’ Award for Accessibility… The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.
What’s more, their Fringe Days Out initiative works with over 30 local charities ensuring cultural, financial, and accessibility barriers can be broken down, and more people can access the festival who otherwise would not. This scheme, alongside their Community Ticketing Initiative which allows artists to donate tickets to community groups, shows a driven commitment to enabling marginalised communities to access the festival. Our experience of the Fringe Society’s attitude towards access and inclusion is that they are world leading.
Here’s what people in the Gig Buddies with Thera Trust community had to say:
“It’s a great help to have a system that appears to be built from the ground up, acknowledging disability is just a part of someone that makes life more tricky in general. It’s great knowing I can approach the front of house team, have them scan my ticket and all of my access requirements show up. I appreciate not having to disclose personal information in public. It can cause anxiety to disclose something that can be viewed as a negative, either by yourself or society in general. Making that process easier lets us get on with enjoying the show. If it’s difficult to explain why I need someone along, having a companion pass be a box I can tick makes my life much easier. It’s meant that I’ve not had an awkward experience at the festival in years.” – Neil, Gig Buddies Member
“Their policy of not requiring documentation to give people access accommodations is great. It saves people hassle and cultivates a positive, trusting culture.” – Molly Tavella, Gig Buddies Project Coordinator
“The Fringe team are accommodating, understanding, and really listen to people.” – Joseph, Gig Buddies Member
“I think The Fringe Society are an excellent example of how Accessibility can be done right. For me, personally and professionally, it’s specifically the no questions asked support tickets, this brings equity to the booking and attending experience, we shouldn’t have to prove our access needs every time we book a ticket. It’s more than that though, it’s the striving for better, they acknowledge when things haven’t worked out and actively strive to do better. I get the feeling that they actually care, it matters to them.” – Debbie Forsyth, Gig Buddies Project Coordinator
“A massive thankyou to Julie and the community team. Without the help of Fringe Days Out I wouldn’t get the chance to see and discover so many shows. I’ve not had any issues with access this year and it seems that it’s always getting better.” – Kevin, Gig Buddies member
“For me the key change this year was the ability to book a personal assistant ticket online. Couple this with access requirements automatically being made available to the people scanning the tickets takes all the stress out of trying to organise a show for someone with special needs. Now its a no-brainer – people with special needs can now focus on the shows they want to see and not worry about whether they will have booking and access issues.” – Kevin, Parent of a Gig Buddies member
“The systems and schemes the fringe offer makes it really affordable for me to take part.” – Robert, Gig Buddies member
You can read about all the winners of this years Bestie Awards here