Overview

We attended to see Pink and as always booked our tickets through the box office explaining my husband’s physical needs (Charcot - Marie - Tooth). He cannot walk unaided but is not in a wheelchair and relies heavily on the support of another person. We booked seats in the dedicated disabled area as we have in many venues, but when we arrived there was no seat for my husband just an empty wheelchair space. This has happened in venues before so we spoke to a member of staff expecting they would just provide a chair. We were instead told that we couldn’t be in the area if my husband didn’t have a wheelchair and it was our fault for not bringing one. We asked several times for a chair and were told we could not have a chair in the stadium. We continued to explain the situation and after about 30 minutes were told that we would have to move and were offered seats a few rows in front down some steps. This is impossible and we again explained this only to be told that we shouldn’t have booked seats there if we didn’t have a wheelchair. We again explained that my husband needs flat access which is why we had booked the seats we had, and cannot use stairs safely especially in a crowded and concrete stadium. We explained this when we booked and there was no issue then. After a lot of discussion and the member of staff speaking to his supervisor, we were offered a wheelchair - which having never used one before and due to his neuropathy my husband fell out of. It took another 30 minutes before they finally agreed to get us an actual chair with a warning that we’re were not to throw it! We missed most of the support acts and had a very stressful start to what should have been an amazing evening. Above all the issues we had the main one is my husbands first time in a wheelchair was forced on him. He will need a wheelchair one day, but through choice he is putting it off as long as possible. We regularly attend gigs and have never had this issue before.

Transport & Parking

We parked at the community centre which was about a 7 minute walk away for us.

Access

The lifts were large and mostly empty, corridors wide and when quite very accessible.

Toilets

Large and clean and earlier in the evening only accessible with a radar key. As the queues got longer for the toilets the doors were left deliberately open by staff meaning the queues were huge.

Staff

The issue with the seating wasn’t the fault of the staff there and they seemed as frustrated as us that it took so long for someone to realise that not all people with a physical disability need a wheelchair.