The number of tickets sold to deaf and disabled music fans by some of the UK’s leading festivals and venues in 2015 was up 26% year-on-year.
Almost 144,000 tickets were sold by more than 100 events covered by charity Attitude is Everything’s Charter of Best Practice, including the Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds Festivals, which was a significant increase on the 114,000 recorded during 2014.
The 89 venues and festivals which had already signed up to the Charter in 2014 increased their combined disabled ticket sales by 19,000. As a proportion of total sales, disabled ticket sales increased from 0.71% in 2014 to 0.73% in 2015.
There were 14 new Charter signatories in 2015, including Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena and the Lowry in Manchester, which sold a combined 11,000 disabled tickets.
Attitude is Everything chief executive Suzanne Bull said that event organisers were benefitting from reaching out to deaf and disabled customers.
Bull said: “Each year we accredit a wide range of venues and festivals, from the biggest in the country to the smallest, and see them make a commitment to improving their access provision.
“Ticket sales across 103 of our charter venues and festivals contributed more than £7.5m (€9m/$10m) to the UK’s music economy. Which, for those live businesses not partnering with us, begs one simple question: what are you waiting for?”
Jon Drape, managing director of Ground Control, which operates events such as Kendal Calling, said: “The figures highlight the growing demand for deaf and disabled fans to attend live music events.”
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