A Tale of Two Gigs: My Experience with Disabled Access At Wembley Arena

Between March and April, I had one of the worst and the best experiences at two different gigs at the same venue. Here's a story of how it all came to be.

The OVO Arena (overwise known as Wembley Arena) is one of the UK's most iconic and legendary venues. Many legendary artists have played at this venue in the past such as Queen, The Who, and Status Quo while many modern greats such as Bring Me The Horizon, Twenty-One Pilots and Don Broco have also taken to this stage, making it a must-go venue for millions of fans every year. This year so far, I have been at two gigs this year and my friends and I have had two very different experiences. I was going to mention this in my review of these gigs, but I did not want this to reflect on the band themselves. so in this blog, I will talk about what happened at Beartooth and Limp Bizkit and the venue's response to our situation.

Beartooth

To go through the events that evening with Beartooth, I asked for the help of one of my best mates Josh who goes with me to many gigs and festivals and has plenty of experience dealing with disabled access over the years and was with us at the gig.

"As an avid music fan, there is nothing more exciting than going to see a band you have long listened to in concert, particularly when you haven’t yet seen them play live before, indeed it is at gigs we often feel the highest highs as the music thrums, the guitars scream and the crowd goes wild for their favourite songs. This feeling of elation is something we should all be privy to and nothing, whether that be disability or any other barrier, should get in the way of enjoying a memorable evening with friends. In over 15 years of attending gigs as a blind person, that was never an issue, until I went to see Beartooth at Wembley Arena a few months prior.

The Story

As we arrived at the arena, the stage was set for a night of loud music, laughter and general enjoyment (though admittedly not too much enjoyment as it was a Sunday night!) My friends and I had standing tickets which has never been an issue in the past, as although on my own I would get hopelessly lost in the sea of people, I am fortunate enough to have a couple of very good and caring friends to keep an eye out for me when I’m down on the floor. The security at the entrance had no issue with us entering via the standing entrance and ushered us through to enjoy our night. Bu unfortunately, this is where the positivity and general merriment came to an abrupt end, though we did not yet know this as we watched the support rock their way through their set.

My friend and I decided to take a break from the music and grab a final drink before the main event and were immediately surrounded by 6 very intimidating security guards upon exiting the gig to enter the bar. Their initial comments were to accuse us of being too intoxicated to enter the arena, something which as I mentioned above we were actively avoiding considering it was a Sunday night. It was also very obvious at this stage that I was blind, as I was carrying a cane with me at the time. After listening to my explanation of my disability however, things escalated considerably, with security threatening to evict us from the venue if we could not show them a valid ticket for the event, despite both my friend and I having clearly marked wristbands which had been handed to us by the same security team hours earlier. This was not only unnecessary but also problematic, as our tickets were on our other friend’s phone who was still down in the arena and by this point, the gig had already recommenced. We were therefore forced to call him out of the gig to vouch for us, making him miss the start of the set. Upon seeing our tickets, you would have thought that this would be the end of the story, but you would be mistaken – my friend and I were forced to speak to the head of Wembley security for over 40 minutes before being allowed back into the event, by which time we had missed the majority of the band."

Where do I even begin with this one? It was quite frankly the worst experience at a concert I have ever had. There is so much wrong with what happened. The first thing I couldn't quite get my head around was the fact that the security team thought it was appropriate to have six of them surround a blind person and effectively their career. It made both of them feel very uncomfortable and was unnecessary. The other was the complete hostility shown by the security staff. They were seemingly doing whatever they could to get us ejected from the venue for not doing anything wrong. My final takeaway from it was why the security didn't stick to their policy and just take the cane off us and leave it at the security desk. That would have meant this whole situation could have been avoided in the first place. All of this led to us making the conclusion that we ultimately did not feel comfortable coming to this venue. The Beartooth show really left a bad taste in our mouths and made us concerned about coming back to the venue to see Limp Bizkit in April.

The aftermath and Wembleys response

I went home that night upset and unhappy with the situation. Not just the fact I missed a fair amount of the show because of a situation which was easily avoided but also the way in which my friends were treated. It's hard to argue that if these were two perfectly sighted people, then this situation would have probably never occurred or escalated the way it did. I did not feel happy with just leaving it there, so I decided to send a complaint to Wembley via email to show my distain for what happened. I recalled my experience as well as the experience of my friends and mentioned that I was aware that they work with the charity Attitude Is Everything and how I would also forward my complaint to them too. Finally, I mentioned that we did not feel comfortable coming to Limp Bizkit in case we have a repeat of what happened at Beartooth. I then waited a couple of weeks for a response from the venue security manager Becky. this is what she had to say:

"From our incident log on the night, I understand you entered the venue via Door 1 and I have followed up with the staff who manage this on our behalf to ensure they are aware of our policies and procedures for guests to access the standing floor. I apologise that, unfortunately, there was some miscommunication at this point."

I would agree with Becky on this point. It was clear that the staff were unsure about the situation which caused the clash we had with security. I am happy that the follow-up has been done so someone else who uses a cane to get about does not suffer from the same issues.

"I have also identified the members of staff that initially approached your friend – they are aware that it did not require the numbers that were present for this initial conversation and I have also spoken to them regarding their whole approach. I will be ensuring that the staff members are re-briefed on our policies and to ensure that customer service and care is a main priority whilst patrolling the concourses."

This was the big one for me. To see many mates shaken up after a gig is not a nice experience and really put a downer on our night at Wembley. While it does not take a genius to work out that having five security guards surround a disabled person and their carer/friends is completely inappropriate and unnecessary, I'm glad Becky has spoken to these people and "Re- Briefed" them on the arena policies and how they should treat fans and concert goers especially ones with disabilities. This was the main point of the complaint. To make sure that I made it clear to the venue how much the situation was a disgrace and how uncomfortable and unhappy it made not just me but my friends as well. No one (especially a disabled person) should ever go to a gig and come out upset or have been put in an uncomfortable situation. The tickets are expensive enough, you'd least want to be treated fairly and be respected by the staff when you go, and we certainly were not. I also mentioned us potentially not coming to Limp Bizkit due to us not feeling comfortable, so Becky gave us an offer.

"I appreciate that this experience has made you question whether to return but I would like to invite you back to Limp Bizkit, that you mention have tickets for. I would like to offer you priority entrance via our VIP entrance along with lounge access and a round of drinks for your party and a food voucher."

I want to clarify that we were not expecting a response like this, nor did I haggle to get VIP access. I was only expecting an apology and that would have been that. I must give credit to Becky for sorting this out for us and trying to make us feel comfortable for our next show there. We accepted this offer to see if Wembley could make it up to us and to actually find out what their VIP experience was like and if the experience would make up for what happened. This is what Josh made of it all:

"Whilst we were grateful to receive this token of good will, it of course raises the question, is this enough to excuse such blatant discrimination and should an incentivisation scheme serve as a good enough compromise for unacceptable behaviour?"

Well, we were going to find out.

Limp Bizkit

So, we ultimately decided to come back to Wembley for Limp Bizkits' headline show on the 17th of April, Just under a month after the issues we had at the Beartooth show. We still had all the issues in the back of our head but was looking forward to seeing what the VIP access would be like. We were told to make our way to Southwest entrance where we would find the VIP entrance which had a red carpet laid out. This was nothing like I had ever experienced. I'm much more of a guy who will want to be on the floor rather than be in a VIP lounge, but I have to admit this was so cool. The staff greeted us knowing who we were already. They were very friendly letting me know that Wargasm (the support band of the evening) were on in 15 mins after seeing me with a Wargasm shirt. This ultimately put us at ease straight away. It made us feel welcome and defiantly was a better start than last time.

We would then be taken to the "Heroes Lounge" where we would be able to have some free drinks which were provided by Wembley as tokens. We were only meant to have four of the tokens but we ended up with eight which may have been a mistake by the venue, but we would not complain. It was a generous offer from them and paid for all the food and drinks that evening and certainly made up for the issue which we had encountered at the Beartooth gig. In terms of what the Lounge was like. It is one of the nicest and chilled-out experiences I've ever had at a gig. The lounge is located on the floor on the left-hand side of the stage with a bar and seating to boot. It was a really nice area which allows you to relax. from a disabled standpoint, I really like this area because it was soundproofed which was great for me. As said before I am Autistic and being in a big crowd can make certain situations overwhelming such as going to a gig. This place is almost like a rest bite as it was nice to be able to not have to work through a crowd to get a drink or try and have a conversation in the arena before an act comes on. Instead, we all could go to this room and get away from the crowd and really enjoy ourselves. As I said at the start, I will review the Limp Bizkets gig another time but all I will say is that we all had a really good time and part of that must be thanks to the really good experience we got given by Wembley.

As well as going with a couple of my friends who went to Beartooth, I also went with my aunt Sarah who is a postgraduate researcher in popular music and mental health at The Univesity of East Anglia and has written blogs for the charity Tonic Music for Mental Health. Here is what she had to say about the VIP experience

"When James told me of the incident with Josh and the security guard at the OVO Wembley Area, I was concerned that we may experience a similar situation on the night of the Limp Bizkit concert. I was shocked when I was told what happened and angered that such prejudice could occur in a music venue where people gathered for their same love of music. Music is universal; it brings people together and no one should be able to control who participates in its enjoyment.When we arrived at the entrance of the VIP area, I was pleasantly surprised by the kind welcome we received. We were shown where the bar was and given our drink and food coupons, of which there was plenty for the four of us. The bar was comfortable and not overcrowded, and we were close to the entrance of the seating area in the main venue. I was however disappointed by the lack of choice of food. I have anxiety and found the main food and drink area very difficult to navigate due to the crowd. An usher kindly showed us to our seats for the gig. They would have been difficult to find by ourselves as the seating was not clearly numbered. The gig itself was fantastic. I am glad that OVO compensated my nephew and his friends for the poor treatment they received at the last gig, but I hope they learn a lesson from the complaints made, and that they educate their staff on disability awareness."

A massive thank you to Josh and Sarah for their contributions to this blog. If you are interested in checking out Sarah's work then please check out the link below.

Looking back on all of this, these two gigs were the wildest concerts I've been to for completely different reasons. The treatment we got at the Beartooth show was shocking and completely out of order, but Wembley did make up for this by giving us the VIP treatment at Limp Bizkit. Credit must be given to go to their venue security managers for sorting this out for us and making sure that their staff are taking care of all fans who go to these shows. I think Josh summarised this perfectly:

"Of course, there is no easy or right answer to the above question and indeed, we must ask ourselves whether this is even the right question to be posing. Whilst nothing can excuse someone’s discriminatory behaviour, it also serves no purpose in getting angry and annoyed at the wrong people. We could of course argue that the venue is responsible for the third-party contractors they employ, but is apportioning blame helping to resolve such situations? Would the correct course of action not be to increase awareness of disability and empower would-be discriminators with the knowledge they need to do their jobs? This of course, brings us back to the original question, is this a disaster in discrimination, or an opportunity for us to learn from past mistakes and encourage better behaviour going forward? There is no right or wrong way of dealing with such situations and it's always hard to be objective when confronted with such blatant injustice, but by giving people the necessary tools and understanding, we can not only avoid this from happening and promote positive change, but also remove the need for arguably patronising and uncomfortable compensation from large corporates who currently don't know any better. Discrimination is unfortunately something all disabled people must deal with at some point in their lives, but by educating others we become much more powerful than by being angry without purpose"