Download Festival Creates Neurodivergent Space for 15% of UK Adults as Accessibility Pressure Mounts
Updated
Updated · bbc.co.uk · Jun 26
Download Festival Creates Neurodivergent Space for 15% of UK Adults as Accessibility Pressure Mounts
3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Jun 26
Summary
Download Festival added a dedicated neurodivergent space this June, offering noise-cancelling headphones, fidget toys, weighted blankets and quiet activities for attendees who can be overwhelmed by crowds and noise.
The move follows complaints about accessibility at major festivals, including Download in 2023 and Wireless in 2022, plus an Equality and Human Rights Commission ruling that Live Nation must make its events more accessible.
Festival-goers with ADHD, autism and dyspraxia told the BBC hidden disabilities are often not taken seriously by staff, with some leaving early or retreating to tents because there are too few calm spaces.
Live Nation said it now provides sensory calm spaces, a quiet campsite, welfare facilities and specialist wellbeing support, but campaigners say staff training, crowd management and quieter routes to accessible areas still lag.
More than 15% of people in the UK are neurodivergent, and MPs earlier this year urged governments and organisers to improve festival infrastructure, security, training and ticketing with disability-led groups.