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FINSBURY PARK: ‘it was great but the accessible platform was far away – 3.5 stars’

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
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access5/5
view3/5
staff4/5
transport and parking4/5
BSLN/A
covid safety3/5
toiletsN/A
overall 4/5

I had a wonderful time seeing Jamie T at Finsbury Park and found the accessibility to be largely very good. I would recommend it to others looking for a venue for their next gig.

a black and white image of the disability platform. in the centre of the image is a white, 21 year old woman. she has her eyebrow pierced. she is sat in the wheelchair she is looking up at her friend to the left of her, with a big grin on her face. to the right of her are a line of people sat down watching the gig. some have their hands up, some have phones out recording. behind the line of people is the rest of the platform, mainly empty with a few individual people stood up scattered across the platform. there are about 15-20 people in the image total. it is taking place at night time
view of the disability platform
a black and white image of the disability platform. in the centre of the image is a white, 21 year old woman. she is sat in a wheelchair.. she has her eyebrow pierced. she is has an arm up and is singing along to the music. she is full of joy. . to the right of her are a line of people sat down watching the gig. some have their hands up, some have phones out recording. behind the line of people is the rest of the platform, mainly empty with a few individual people stood up scattered across the platform. there are about 15-20 people in the image total. it is taking place at night time
view of the disability platform
an image of the stage taken from the disability platform. the stage takes up the majority of the picture. it is lit up with 4 rows of yellow lights at the top of stage's ceiling. at the centre of the platform there is a small figure which is jamie t. it is unclear. behind him are 5 square screens, one of which is red, the others are grey. on each side of the stage there is a big screen with a close up image of jamie t holding a guitar on them. in the bottom 1/5 of the image is the crowd, all of whom have their backs to the camera facing the stage. there are lots of phones being held up. behind the stage is the night sky
view of the stage from the platform
images from the gig

The disabled entrance was located at the back of the arena through a door in the fence. The team had made a ramped path that went from the outside of the arena to the accessible platform. This meant that my wheelchair was able to get there very easily. The staff at security were really lovely and helpful., and I found the checking in bit very easy.

We encountered our first issue when we got to the platform. I went to the gig with two other people, and one of my friends was initially turned away. I understand that it is important that the platform should be prioritised for people who need it, but as it was a huge platform and completely empty at the time I thought it was a bit ridiculous. I don’t think it would have been right or safe to make a young woman be at an outdoor gig in the evening all on her own. I found the staff at the accessible platform quite rude and unhelpful unfortunately.

The view was okay – much like other outdoor venues I’ve been too. We could see Jamie T but it was far enough away that you couldn’t really see his face, so I watched the whole thing on the screen. I think they could have moved the platform closer (eg at the front to the side perhaps?) The platform was very spacious and I think everyone got a good view.

There was some difficultly leaving but it was fine in the end. We had previously been told that we could exit from the same gate that we had entered the venue with. However, near the end of the show we were informed by the staff that this was not going to be the case, and we’d have to use the same exit as everyone else. They recognised it would have been difficult with wheelchairs so recommended that people on the platform waited till everyone left. This was quite distressing, as getting my wheelchair through tight crowds of thousands of people would have been very tricky, and taken a long time. And the prospect of waiting until the thousands of people left seemed very unfair. Due to the nature of my illness, I was tiring and it was key to my health that I got home as soon as possible. Luckily, they soon changed their mind, and we were able to leave through the separate gate at the back that we used previously. This made a huge difference.

Overall, although I had a few complaints, I found this venue to be a lot more accessible than other places I’ve been to, and I found everything worked very easily. I had a great time.

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