Overview

I get that it's a festival - but the accessibility provision seems to be getting worse each year! I've gone to T in the Park for the last 3 or 4 years now - the Balado site was much better. Last year was almost excusable as the festival moved to a new site - but this year really should have been better! All in all - you can get round the site - there was dedicated disabled parking, a dedicated disabled campsite and a buggy contraption to transport you around the site - but it is seriously hard work! On the upside, we did see the Red Hot Chili Peppers so it was worth it.

Transport & Parking

We went on the third day of the festival so there was already soft ground and mud. However what wasn't there tracking down?? When we first turned into the car park we got stuck. Luckily there were some staff there to push us out (I think they had been doing that a lot by the look of them!). Then when we got to the dedicated Disabled Parking that was all boggy and muddy too. We managed to unload and get to the disabled camping area where the "Disabled Check In" tent was.

Access

Pretty bad. I understand that this is a festival. And I understand that it was muddy. But there could have been so many easy improvements. The golf buggy that was transporting disabled festival goers was pretty small so my pal's feet were sticking out the side! We wanted to go to the Main Stage - and the drop off point for this was miiiiilllleeeesss away! This was made even worse by the fact that there was no walkway between the drop off point and the stage - in previous years there has been. The accessible platform at the main stage was uncovered this year - apparently this is something all festivals do - but again annoying as my pal uses a powerchair and so we had issues with make sure that he was under the umbrella the whole time. The platform did give us a good view though. Getting back to the car was a whole other issue! By that time the mud was even worse and luckily we'd met another wheelchair user who had said that they had taken a shortcut through the Welfare Tent. We managed to get through the tent and onto a bumpy but thankfully tarmac'd road and kept on this back to the car. (Why the buggy stop was not here is an absolute mystery.)

Toilets

There were the standard accessible portaloos in the disabled camping area. At the Main Stage there were two portaloos - one of which was an accessible portaloo. Again - I'm sure there used to be more!

Staff

A mixture. Unfortunately there were some clueless individuals who hindered the experience. And on Friday night my pal had had a run in with a rude Health & Safety officer. But for my part they were mainly helpful and Matt who was the guy in charge of the Disabled Campsite was an absolute gem! He remembered my pal from his visit the preceding days and was very helpful and knowledgeable. He was dealt a pretty rubbish hand and was managing it as best he could.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

Such a shame that the access was so rubbish! I never expect my T in the Park visits to be easy but this year's put a dampener on our festival experience. Please sort it out for next year! I did see signs for Hearing Loops and Charging Points but we didn't need to use those.

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