The short version
Viewing platforms, companion tickets, accessible presales, the CEA cinema card, quiet spaces and Changing Places in a field — live events have quietly built real access schemes. The catch: almost all of them require knowing to ask.
Live events are where disabled people most often get told, in effect, that joy is optional: the standing-only gig, the away end up forty steps, the festival where the accessible toilet is a rumour. But this is also a sector that has genuinely moved — pushed by two campaigning charities and by disabled fans who kept turning up. The access exists. It is just gated behind knowing the words.
The words to know
- Access tickets / accessible booking lines: most large venues and ticket agents run a separate access booking route with wheelchair spaces, seats near exits, and step-free allocations. Register once (evidence such as PIP, an Access Card or similar is typically accepted) and book through it — general sale rarely shows these seats at all.
- Companion / PA tickets: venues across music, sport, theatre and cinema commonly admit an essential companion free. The Access Card (the +1 symbol) proves the need once instead of arguing it per venue; for cinema specifically the CEA Card does the same for a few pounds a year.
- Viewing platforms at gigs and festivals — raised, stewarded, with a companion place. Book them; turn-up availability is real but not guaranteed.
- Quiet and sensory spaces, ear defenders, relaxed performances: increasingly standard at festivals, arenas and theatres — the same infrastructure our Tourette’s and hidden disability readers use.
- Accessible camping and Changing Places at festivals: the big festivals now run accessible campsites with charging for powerchairs, and several truck in Changing Places facilities. The specialist charity Attitude is Everything audits and drives this across live music; Level Playing Field does the same for sport.
The venue built the platform, printed the companion policy and trained the stewards. Then it hid the whole lot behind a phone line that isn’t on the ticket page. Access that requires insider knowledge is access half-delivered.
The fights that remain
- Ticket-drop injustice: access lines that open after general sale sells out, or phone-only booking for headline drops — a reasonable adjustments issue when everyone else books online in seconds. Complain to the venue and the ticket agent; this is changing precisely because people do.
- Sightlines: a wheelchair space behind a standing crowd is not a view. Persistent offenders deserve naming — and pinning.
- Away fans with access needs at football remain the poor relation — Level Playing Field publishes club-by-club reality checks worth reading before you buy.
- “Sold out” of access spaces while general tickets remain: ask what proportion of capacity is accessible and when it sold. Sometimes the honest answer embarrasses the venue into finding a space.
A working checklist
- Register for the venue’s or agent’s access scheme before tickets drop, and get an Access Card if you go out more than twice a year — it pays for itself in un-had arguments.
- Book the platform, parking and companion ticket at purchase, and screenshot everything.
- Email the access team the week before: confirm the platform place, step-free route and accessible loo. A dated email turns “sorry, it’s full” into their problem.
- On the day, arrive at the access entrance early — and if what was promised isn’t there, ask for the duty manager and the event control log, then follow up in writing for a refund and fix.
- Afterwards, tell Attitude is Everything or Level Playing Field how it went — their charters run on fan reports — and rate the venue on our map, gold or otherwise.
