Big Fake Festival 2024 - Accessibility Statement
Statement date: THU 09 NOV 2024
When we launched our Big Fake Festival tickets for 2024 we expected there to be a significant increase on demand and this indeed happened… and then some…. (causing the website to break for a moment or two 😫 🫣 ). Demand for tickets has been exceptional and as part of this the disabled tickets sold out very quickly. We have had people contact us through support, on the group etc asking if we will be releasing extra disabled tickets and for various exceptions, variations etc.
We have taken the last few days to review our disabled ticketing set up and discuss with a professional organisation and have now partnered with Nimbus Disability, operators of the Access Card scheme. Nimbus Disability is one of the country’s leading providers of disability-related advice and support to professional organisations and is recognised as a lead authority on accessible ticketing in the UK. They are an award-winning organisation run by disabled people who specialise in the legislation behind The Equality Act and other legislation like Welfare Benefits.
For 2024 we doubled the capacity of the accessible campsite. We can confirm that we won’t be increasing our disabled ticket allocation (PA / essential companion tickets) any further. Our guidance to support this decision from Nimbus is below -
“The role of an Essential Companion ticket is where a paying customer requires such significant and substantial support they would not be able to participate without an individual accompanying them to ensure full and safe participation. This is to be considered a reasonable adjustment as laid out by the Equality Act 2010. In order to ensure that we can operate the festival safely for all, we have to consider that those customers requiring an essential companion have access requirements that limit the numbers we can safely issue, especially considering our greenfield location. This includes being able to safely evacuate in the event of an emergency, which forms part of our risk assessment.”
We have listened to those of you that require access support / short distances / power to charge medical and mobility devices and as a result can make the following commitments -
- The disabled access route into the garden area will no longer be disabled access only. This will be an entrance for all to use (complete with security search etc).
- Charging will be available in the medical tent for medical / mobility equipment as far as possible - in the event of a an emergency situation in the tent this maybe temporarily unavailable.
We appreciate your patience whilst we have worked through this and hope that this now clarifies exactly what provision there will be at The Big Fake Festival 2024 to ensure that everyone is able to plan accordingly.
We continue to develop the festival and take learning year on year. Our access partners Nimbus will continue to support us as we get closer to The Big Fake Festival 2024.
Kind regards, Fake Festivals