Overview

I had the most amazing night seeing Fall Out Boy at the OVO Hydro in October, but, once again, being disabled made, what is a straightforward process for most people, incredibly stressful and difficult. My daughter tried to purchase accessible tickets for Fall Out Boy with her artist pre presale code, but Ticketmaster only sell them in 2's or 4's, so we had to phone the Hydro accessible tickets line to purchase 3! The Hydro line was permanently engaged and by the time we got through, all accessible tickets had sold out, but were told there 'may' be more released with the general sale. The accessible line doesn't seem to be effectively manned and, once again, we couldn't get through on general sale day, so as Ticketmaster don't allow accessible ticket orders in anything other than 2's and 4's, we decided to purchase three standing tickets, in the hope that we could stay right at the side, so my scooter was out of the way. Unfortunately, Hydro team said my scooter wouldn't be allowed anywhere other than the accessible seats and that we should try and swap them for accessible tickets, otherwise I couldn't go. We contacted Ticketmaster to swap them and were told it wasn't possible, but when my daughter pointed out this was all because they didn't allow us to book 3 accessible tickets online, they asked for an email to be sent and finally, three weeks later, we had the confirmation we had accessible tickets. Even then, we weren't 100% confident all would be well on the night! Also, from the looks of it, there's only about 100 accessible seating tickets out of 14,300 tickets, which really isn't a fair balance. Lastly, Ticketmaster didn't let us know there was an outstanding balance to pay and they were holding our tickets until it was settled. It was only when friends received their tickets that we contacted Ticketmaster to find out where our tickets were. Honestly, why do they have to make to so stressful and difficult? The accessible booking system really lets the venue down, as the Hydro staff on the night were amazing and very helpful, even coping with me having a panic meltdown when they wanted to empty my sealed water bottles into cups (I can't carry cups). By the time we got inside, my anxiety was through the roof. The accessible entrance we were directed to was at the other end of building to where our seats were, and negotiating an excited, busy crowd at everyone's waist level is incredible daunting, even if Fall Out Boy fans are clearly good people and were keen to help where they could! It was great to see so many people with different accessiblity needs there, from sensory to physical, and it just shows how much has been done to improve facilities, but there's still room for improvement, especially when it comes to booking. Fall Out Boy were incredible though, and I had an amazing night making some fantastic memories with my daughters, even if I did have a few extra grey hairs from it all!

Transport & Parking

We ate at The Village over the bridge, so parked there and wheeled across to venue.

Access

Disabled access was the opposite end of the building to the seating, so we had to fight our way through a lot of people, which was quite stressful

Toilets

Member of accessible support staff had radar key and were most helpful on the night

Staff

Ticketmaster weren't helpful, but ovo staff at the venue on the night were very helpful.

Photos