Family vow never to return to Derbyshire's Y Not festival after disabled access nightmare

Kitchen fitter Ray Miller, 49, attended the event over the weekend of July 27-30 with his wife Tina, stepdaughter and son-in-law, two grandchildren and one of their friends, but said organisers had neglected important considerations for their multiple accessibility needs despite complaints raised last year.

Raymond said: “We were staying in the accessibility camping area as my wife has severe arthritis in both knees, my eight-year-old granddaughter Skylar has hypersensitive mobility issues so needs use of a wheelchair as she gets tired easy, and we need electricity for my son-in-law Lee as he has a CPAP machine at night for severe sleep apnoea.

“When we arrived on Thursday we were told that accessibility camping was down the road, around half a mile away. Last year it was a two minute walk away from the main arena. My wife is normally limited to walking about 15-20 metres, apart from that she has no mobility at all. ”

He added: “There was also no electricity in the camping area until 7pm on Thursday, and only one manned disabled toilet. It had to run off battery power for the first few hours. There was nothing for the rest of the camp area until more toilets were delivered in the early hours of Friday.

“We left on Saturday afternoon as there was no point being there. We’d paid about £800 for our original tickets, but all we were able to do is sit outside our van. There was no point in being there. We’d never go again. I just don’t think it’s fair to other people who will be in even worse positions that we are. It’s ridiculous.”

The family’s visit echoed that in 2022, when they had been promised electricity before they arrived only to find that none of the festival staff knew where the facilities were, and spent several hours redirecting them to different areas of the site.

When they did eventually find the right camping spot, a similar lack of toilet facilities meant that soon their walk to the stage areas involved crossing ground soaked in sewage, where desperate festivalgoers had relieved themselves.

Ray’s complaint resulted in organisers offering the family guest list passes for 2023 and a promised to avoid a repeat experience.

Ray said: “Me and my son-in-law, Lee, agreed to give it another try. We thought it couldn’t get any worse and they must have learned their lessons. They’re supposed to cater for people with disability needs, if they don’t want to do that they should say so.”

Leading up to this year’s event, Y Not’s website stated organisers had partnered with the specialist live event accessibility organisation Attitude is Everything, “to make the festival as access-friendly as possible … We know that to truly champion accessibility, we need to strive to improve year on year and continue to meet the needs and requirements of all Y Notters.

“We work closely with Attitude is Everything to provide an event site which is accessible, and to that end, we are pleased to announce that we have received their Bronze Award in accessibility.”

But Ray found communication about accessibility arrangements was poor leading up to the event, and staff once again lacked the necessary information to help them on site.

He said: “The biggest issue this year was the extra distance to the stage. We’d have been fine walking in if there was some kind of shuttle for my wife and granddaughter.

“I don’t know how they went through all the planning and agreed that wheelchair access should be placed half a mile away. We couldn’t even use the wheelchair as the ground was too boggy and uneven, so we had to put my granddaughter in a trolley and pull her all the way. It took my wife nearly 45 minutes due to her mobility and pain she was in.

He added: “Once we were inside Tina was unable to sit or stand. There were no chairs on the disabled viewing platform, and we were told we couldn’t bring our own in.

“I was annoyed so went to seek advice in the welfare tent, where I saw an elderly couple having a discussion with the same concerns as we had. They wouldn’t even let the elderly or people with disabilities take fold-up camping chairs into the festival because they could use them as a projectile. You could buy a can of beer and chuck it and that would do much more damage if it hit someone.

“I spoke to someone else who was told he couldn’t bring his walking stick into the arena for the same reason. It’s complete discrimination in my opinion. We were told only pregnant women could take a chair in.

“I really don’t like complaining and if we had no disabilities in the family unit, we wouldn’t have a problem but this is history repeating.” When the Derbyshire Times put the complaints to Y Not organisers and Attitude is Everything, only the festival responded.

A spokesperson said: “Mr Miller contacted us directly by email on Sunday and we have replied to apologise for the disappointing experience that he and his family had at Y Not festival this year.“We understand that we fell short in certain areas, and the change in layout could have been communicated better in the lead up to the festival.“Late delivery of toilets from another event delayed both the installation and servicing of facilities around the site, including those for access customers.“Our policy with regards to festival goers not taking their own chairs into the arena is primarily in place for health and safety reasons, however we will review this in relation to access customers, as well as our other arrangements, to ensure a more accessible and enjoyable experience for all our customers.”

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