Attitude is Everything, a charity that improves Deaf and disabled people’s access to live music, has revealed in their biennial State of Access Report that improvements to Reading Festival’s accessibility over the past five years have resulted in a 286% increase in ticket sales to Deaf and disabled people, their family and friends. The report confirms that the presence of viewing platforms is the key to festival accessibility, and that the capacity of the event is a major factor when it comes to providing accessible experiences to disabled festival fans.

Over the past five years, Festival Republic has made significant improvements in order to make Reading Festival more accessible to Deaf and disabled customers, introducing additional viewing platforms including two platforms at both the Main Stage and the NME/Radio 1 tent, interchangeable Personal Assistant lanyards so that disabled customers can sit with different friends throughout the festival, and wheelchair charging points on the viewing platforms themselves.

In return, Reading Festival has enjoyed a 286% increase in accessible tickets sold over a five year period – selling £115k worth of tickets in 2013, up from £40k in 2009. Once you take into account food and drink expenditure, the total economic impact of making the festival more accessible leapt from £70k in 2009, to £187k in 2013 (calculation below).

The report highlights the presence of a viewing platform as the key factor influencing Deaf and disabled people’s experiences at festivals. Events with a viewing platform were given an average rating of 6 out of 10 by Attitude is Everything’s ‘Mystery Shoppers’, compared with 4 out of 10 without.

Overall, larger festivals were proven to be more accessible, with Deaf and disabled Mystery Shoppers rating the access facilities at large festivals 8 out of 10 as opposed to just 5 out of 10 for small festivals. This rating is likely to be influenced by the fact that 88% of the large festivals surveyed offered viewing platforms to enhance the view of the performance, compared with just 43% of small festivals with a capacity of less than 10,000 people.

The State of Access Report is based on hundreds of ‘mystery shopping’ questionnaires from Deaf and disabled music fans, reporting on both UK venues and festivals.

Said Melvin Benn, Managing Director, Festival Republic, organisers of Reading, Leeds and Latitude festivals: “Our commitment to improving the accessibility of our festivals is integral to our ability to create great festival experiences for all of our customers. By investing in the facilities and working in partnership with Attitude is Everything, we have been able to grow our disabled audience and are now reaping the rewards.”

Said Jon Drape, Managing Director, Ground Control, organisers of Festival No. 6, Live from Jodrell Bank, Parklife and Kendall Calling festivals: “By working with Attitude is Everything we learnt how everything from the festival site to the website could be designed in a way to make them more accessible, without having an impact on their functionality and feel, and for little or no cost. This learning has spread through the business and beyond - to our partners, our suppliers and the promoters we work with.”