Disabled Seating at Concerts. This is my experience. Please share yours

swingaloo

My husband is disabled and we enjoy going to shows but its very much a lottery with the seating.
Our last one was at the Manchester Arena and the leg room is terrible. He needs to sit with a leg stretched right out. we were lucky that a lady on the end of the row swopped seats with us as the venue couldn't help at all. He has crutches and we had to inconvenience the people next to us by having them under the row of seats.


We recently went to Las Vegas and did 12 shows, each at a different venue.
At each one they could not have been more helpful. the minute they see you have a disability they go into overdrive. Don't let you queue, take you directly to your seat. When they saw our tickets, if they didn't think they were suitable seating they would move us without us ever requesting. We had extra seats put at the bottom of the aisle on the front row for 3 of the shows. They take your crutches and store them and bring them back to you at the end of he performance and nothing is too much trouble.
Every venue was the same. After the first 2 nights we realised that we would never get a bad seat and quite often we got our tickets from the 'last minute booths' so we just bought the cheapest available and always had them exchanged free of charge at the venue.


A bit cheeky but great!

rufydoofyM

swingaloo wrote: »

My husband is disabled and we enjoy going to shows but its very much a lottery with the seating.
Our last one was at the Manchester Arena and the leg room is terrible. He needs to sit with a leg stretched right out. we were lucky that a lady on the end of the row swopped seats with us as the venue couldn't help at all. He has crutches and we had to inconvenience the people next to us by having them under the row of seats.


We recently went to Las Vegas and did 12 shows, each at a different venue.
At each one they could not have been more helpful. the minute they see you have a disability they go into overdrive. Don't let you queue, take you directly to your seat. When they saw our tickets, if they didn't think they were suitable seating they would move us without us ever requesting. We had extra seats put at the bottom of the aisle on the front row for 3 of the shows. They take your crutches and store them and bring them back to you at the end of he performance and nothing is too much trouble.
Every venue was the same. After the first 2 nights we realised that we would never get a bad seat and quite often we got our tickets from the 'last minute booths' so we just bought the cheapest available and always had them exchanged free of charge at the venue.


A bit cheeky but great!

Thanks for adding to the thread:)

It's such a shame that you had a bad experience at Manchester Arena and I would urge you to give it another chance. When I book seats I make sure that the person I'm speaking to understands all of our needs and mobility issues to ensure that we are seated in a suitable position and have less stress on the night. So far this has worked, but not without a few stressful hiccups the week before like the time we went to Wembley Stadium. It was that experience that taught me to ensure the booking agent understood our needs and to always deal with the dedicated disabled ticket department.

Hope you have more success and enjoy more shows in the future. Please share how you get on next time.

M

rufydoofyM

Having updated my experiences I'm hoping that others will add theirs. I'm wondering if anyone has experience of Sheffield Arena ?

nemo183

Just to say how excellent the facilities are at Wembley Stadium, and also the help available on the day.One major benefit is that wheelchair users still can see the match if everyone stands up.

Just worth mentioning that to book wheelchair seats you will need some evidence of your disability (Benefits or doctor's letter - blue badge won't do it), so it's worth having something on hand to email them.

Just remembered - my son needs to be in one of the lower tiers because of vertigo, so be sure to ask if this applies to you.

Denise_Hawley

We've stopped going to the O2 because the disabled platform, apart from being far from the stage, is totally unsuitable for people with back problems. The wood mezzanine vibrates, exacerbating spinal pain severely.

We did get decent seats above the forward mezzanine in seats set on cement once, but those are extremely hard to get.

becca_jwh22

I an a wheelchair user and have been treated very well at most venues myself and my carers go to although not very often due to the nature of my disability but have just booked tickets to see the impractical jokers an Manchester on 5th Oct and have been given the camera platform at top of block 114 was just wondering if anyone had been seated here before if so how many wheelchairs carers dobthry allocate to the platforms as when I was in my mid teens I attended with my aunt who was a wheelchair user as her carer(not that long before the sutuation was switched for me) and I remember that they allocated 2 wheelchairs and 2 carers to one what they now call a camera platform which I may add are just wide enough for a wheelchair and a fold out chair side by side which ment myself and the other carer had to spend all night stood behind our person in the wheelchair also we were not part of the same group had never met and spent hours in a tiny enclosed space too close for comfort. Which is making me worried that the same thing is going to happen when we go in October

greenface

Its always difficult as a dad of a wheelchair user to go to a new venue . we now find the venues we feel able to accommodate us properly then see what they have going on for him to go to . smaller venues and often newer places are better . Although we went to the Dominion theatre to watch we will rock you . good access and very good seats ( not many in the venue ) but ours was good . Smaller new places are better and I feel safer . We have Flral Pavillion. southport . rhyl . Llandudno . Venue Cymru . Philamonic . We wont get Roger water the wall sadly there but some decent bands and plays . Went to the empire last night last night to see the queen show . That was good but access could have been easier (probably not better due to the shape of the buildings entrances ) good thread and feel things are getting better . son is also a football fan and we find it better to watch smaller games than big boomers . Tranmere rovers rather than Liverpool etc due to the volume of people etc

lostinmusic

Hi, I am pretty new to this, well this is my first post,I was compelled to sign up with the few comments to the person who started this thread, i would just like to inform people that disabled people do not always use wheelchairs, but they do need the space a wheelchair does, both my partner and sister have mobility issues and need to have limited walking distance, can not be standing up and down to let people past and may need assistance standing, personally we go to a lot of gigs and i can not speak highly enough of Leeds first direct arena, from the booking to the attending it is fantastic they really look after you, personally We will never attend anything at Manchester arena again and i to be honest Manchester venues as a who seem to be not disabled people friendly, i recently tried to book tickets for O2 Manchester 163 calls later (I can screenshot my phone and send it to show you) i was told the only disabled seats available were up 60 step with no lift, called London Roadhouse, tickets booked and lady i spoke to was lovely, just shows the massive difference in attitude towards disabled customers

lostinmusic

Also, Download festival and Leeds Festival, have amazing access and facilities would recommend both.

raewood

My experience of ambulant seating so far is that the seating is usually at the top of a block in order to ensure that the concert goer is not having to tackle steps. However the issue I have had with this is that everyone in front of me stands up as soon as the act comes on stage and many stay standing throughout. I have missed out on quite a lot of viewing due to this and it's made it a stressful time for my partner to then go off and find a member of staff to try and seat us somewhere else which is not always possible. I never want to use up a wheelchair space on a platform because I can sit in a normal chair and I can manage some steps BUT I can't stand throughout a whole concert, even a few songs can be too much and too painful. I'm feeling forced to use a wheelchair space for my next concert because of this but fingers crossed I won't have to, we'll see how the phone call to the disabled line goes.. I really think all venues need to think these things through and would love in an ideal world for there to be one block of seating where no one is allowed to stand at all. Sometimes this is all someone with a disability or even a temporary injury needs. A 'NO STANDING' AREA ticket availability would solve a lot of peoples anxieties about attending events.