Overview

‘Dandelion’ is a Scotland-wide free festival which features events with a with a slant on ecology and a ‘sow grow, share’ theme over a year. Ideas around the arts, sciences and humanities were sown, grown and shared at various venues; the Inverness festival had three days of diverse performances, installations and talks. I enjoyed King Creosote, Natty Dreddd, Del Amitri, Tank and the Bangas and last but not least, the incredible kora player Sona Jobarteh; I couldn’t believe that these performances were all free! There were also lots more artists I didn’t see. I also attended a really interesting talk called ‘Fabulous Fungi’ which explored the wood-wide web and what it could teach us amongst other things! Free plants were gifted and plenty of advice on sustainability was available throughout the festival too. A slight criticism would be that this festival wasn’t very well publicised in Inverness; I only found out about it hours before from a random source and I know lots more people who told me that they would have attended had they realised it was on. The organisers probably shouldn’t have relied on social media as much to spread the word but having said that, I still loved it and look forward to next year’s programme.

Transport & Parking

We parked on one of the disabled parking spaces available on the street outside the Northern Meeting Park; there is also a car-park very close by with disabled parking next to the Inverness Cathedral. As the event spilled onto the grounds of the neighbouring Eden Court Theatre for talks etc., I think they would have been ok with people using the disabled parking there too. The venue is approximately 15-20 minutes’ walk/wheel from both the bus and train stations in the centre of Inverness.

Access

Access was really good; the field is used for sports and so it’s very level. In addition to this, they also had tracking with small, ramped lips onto it linking all the major areas which made it much easier for wheelchairs to travel. There was also a viewing platform with a great view of both stages and the talk I attended was held in a marquee with lots of space to manoeuvre into a great position. I was disappointed and annoyed to have someone on the viewing platform next to me at one point who thought it was ok to vape right next to my ventilator; luckily there was room for me to move away but I don’t think security should have allowed them onto the platform at that point. I absolutely loved seeing the embedded access by way of BSL interpretation throughout the ‘Fabulous Fungi’ talk and during continuity announcements onstage.

Toilets

There seemed to be quite a lot of disabled toilets at different parts of the park with one just off the viewing platform. The toilets were basic, portable toilets but very clean for festival toilets with a grab-rail around the edge, a hand sanitiser but no red cord; there were no Changing Places toilets that I could see.

Staff

Security were very friendly and helpful; I would have given five stars if security had also protected us from the person vaping on the viewing platform. I was obviously wasn't the only person bothered by this and one of them left the platform which they shouldn't have had to do.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

As this event was outdoors and in marquees and also had hand-sanitiser at the disabled toilets, I felt as Covid-confident as I could be at this kind of event. I loved the festival; it was family and dog-friendly and catered for all tastes at different times.

Photos