crip the gig

making gigs accessible for all

EVENTIM APOLLO: ‘we had a wonderful time’ – 4 stars

Rating: 4 out of 5.
back to the venue
access4/5
view4/5
staff4/5
transport and parking4/5
BSLN/A
covid safety2/5
toilets2/5
overall 4/5

I found eventim apollo to be very accessible and enjoyed the Big Thief gig very much. Everything was very easy and I hope to attend another gig here again soon.

a colour image of the stage from the disability platform. the bottom half of the image is the crowd, all of whom have their backs to the camera facing the stage. in the centre of the top 1/3 of the image is the stage. it is lit up from behind by a row of red lights. the lights illuminate three figures at the front of the stage. in the middle is adrianne lenker holding a guitar. she is a white woman in her thirties with short dark hair. on either side of her are two white men with dark hair, both holding guitars. the camera is to the right of the stage
view of the stage from the disability platform
a colour image of the stage from the disability platform. the bottom half of the image is the crowd, all of whom have their backs to the camera facing the stage. in the centre of the top 1/3 of the image is the stage. it is lit up from behind by red, green and white lights. the lights illuminate three figures at the front of the stage. in the middle is adrianne lenker holding a guitar. she is a white woman in her thirties with short dark hair. on either side of her are two white men with dark hair, both holding guitars. the camera is to the right of the stage
view of the stage from the disability platform
a colour image of the stage from the disability platform. the bottom 1/4 of the image is the crowd, all of whom have their backs to the camera facing the stage. in the centre of the image is the stage. it is lit up by red and yellow lights. there is a lot of red and yellow smoke. there are 4 figures on stage . in the middle is adrianne lenker holding a guitar and singing to a microphone. she is a white woman in her thirties with short dark hair. tp her left is a middle aged man with dark hair playing a guitar. on her right are two men, both with dark hair, on playing the piano and one holding a guitar. the camera is to the right of the stage
view of the stage from the disability platform

We arrived only a few minutes before they were about to start to ensure I tired as little as possible. We were very concerned, therefore, to find such a long queue to get into the venue. However, the second security saw us they opened the fence by the entrance to the venue let us go straight through. They were also really understanding and helpful about the extra stuff I needed (eg water etc.). As we arrived late, it was easy navigating from the door to the platform as there weren’t many people in the lobby. However, I could imagine this being quite difficult if it was very busy. The staff were helpful when I got their attention but I didn’t find them massively attentive. The platform was great, not too crowded with a great view of the stage.

The only real issue was that there wasn’t a disabled loo next to my platform. There were two platforms on either side of the stalls (which worked well) but only one of them was next to a disabled loo. To reach the (non disabled) loo nearest to me involved walking through the crowd which would have been completely impossible in a wheelchair. Luckily, I am an ambulatory wheelchair user and was therefore able to do this easily enough. I’m not sure what others would have done. If you need to access a disabled loo, I would recommend making sure you go to the platform on the right (when facing the stage). I think the stewards should have let us know about the lack of disabled loo on the left and therefore made sure that people who needed it went on the right side.

The other issue I encountered was at the end as there was no separate disabled exit. Although this is common with venues it is not great and should be implemented in all places. It’s near impossible navigating a wheelchair through a tight crowd of thousands of people and resulted in me hurting many people’s ankles. I can imagine some people with disabilities would have found that element quite stressful / difficult.

Also being an indoor venue, it wasn’t very covid safe at all. And the fact that we had to push through the crowds to get out meant that there was no way to socially distance.

Overall though, I would say that the access at eventim apollo was pretty good and the view was better than most I’ve been to before. I will definitely look at gigs there again in the future.

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crip the gig cares about one thing – making gigs accessible for all. this user review based site helps disabled folk choose the right venue for their next gig. whether you identify with the term ‘disabled’, are neurodivergent, mentally ill or have a mobility issue, crip the gig welcomes your input

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