Live Nation and its Festival Republic subsidiary have signed a legally binding agreement with the UK's Equality And Human Rights Commission after concerns were expressed about poor accessibility for disabled music fans at the company's Wireless and Download festivals.
The EHRC - which was established by the Equality Act 2006 - said yesterday that its concerns about access issues at the Live Nation festivals "followed multiple reports of poor accessibility for disabled customers” at the 2022 edition of Wireless Festival and at Download Festival in 2023. At the latter, these included “obscured stage visibility and poor facilities".
"Under the Equality Act 2010”, it added, “Live Nation are legally required to make reasonable adjustments for disabled customers at their festivals".
In the agreement between Live Nation and EHRC, the live giant commits to "undertake a robust lesson learning exercise to investigate the cause of issues at Wireless 2022 and Download 2023 and ensure they are not repeated".
It will also introduce a new manual to assess and promote accessibility at all existing and new festival sites; review all internal policies and procedures to ensure accessibility provisions are included; and introduce organisation-wide training on disability awareness and accessibility.
EHRC's Chair Kishwer Falkner stated yesterday: “Live music and festivals are a pivotal part of British culture and we are lucky to have such a vibrant array of events each year that can cater for every individual taste”.
"Festivals deserve to be enjoyed by all, including disabled people", she went on. "No one should be subjected to poor treatment when attending or being put off from attending altogether due to unacceptable access issues".
"The reported experiences at both Wireless and Download Festival were unacceptable and should never have happened", she concluded. "We welcome Live Nation’s commitment to improve their services and the signing of this agreement will ensure disabled people are not left behind at future events".