The organisers of the Glastonbury festival are set to introduce a new stage which has been designed with disabled music fans in mind.
With many venues a hazard for the most athletic of attendees, spare a thought for those less abled who still feel passionate about music. Britain may well be making leaps and bounds in regards to disabled access, but many venues are still a no go area for many.
London promoter Club Attitude aims to change this. The organisation has teamed up Glastonbury to launch a brand new stage, which aims to present a weekend’s worth of entertainment with disabled festival goers in mind.
Set to be held in the Shangri La area of the Somerset site, the stage is a new breakthrough for disabled fans. The Club Attitude stage will give the audience full wheelchair access as well as sign language interpretation of the band’s performance.
Glastonbury spokesman John Shearlaw told British newspaper The Guardian: “We usually consult organisations representing disabled people to ensure we make the festival as accessible as possible. This year, we wanted to go a step further and see whether we couldn’t do something more.”
The full line up for the stage has yet to be announced, but the first names to be confirmed include disabled punk outfit Heavy Load and psych-heads Spaceships Are Cool.
In the past, Club Attitude has received notable support from such acts as Mystery Jets, thecocknbullkid and Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster.
Claire Elsam, the Disabled Access Coordinator at Glastonbury spoke exclusively to ClashMusic : –
“Glastonbury and Attitude is Everything have been working together for a number of years to improve the access at the festival. Although a large and challenging site we now on average have about 300 disabled festival goers attending yearly. Along with the brilliantly run disabled campsite there are also now viewing platforms at all the main stages, a wheelchair accessible bus service around the site and new for 2009 a dedicated team of BSL Interpreters available throughout the festival.
We are all very excited about the Club Attitude showcase in Shangri La and hope this will now become a regular slot in the Glastonbury line-up.”
This year’s Glastonbury promises to be a landmark for the event. After last year’s criticism the festival has rebounded to sell out in record time. The headliners include some mouth watering names, with Bruce Springsteen set to make his first ever appearance at the Somerset event.
Joining The Boss at the event will be such star names as Neil Young, Kasabian, Franz Ferdinand and much more.
Glastonbury takes place between June 25th – 29th.
