Glastonbury with a white cane

Losing your sight is more than just losing your vision.  You also lose many other aspects of your life and have to cope with and come to terms with changes that don’t cross the mind of people who only focus on the fact that you’re going blind.

I have found that I’ve had to deal with a complete change in who I am.  I used to be a graphic designer, I used to drive a VW Campervan, I used to love all variety of films, I used to be an avid reader, watch a lot of football and play video games.

All of these, if not impossible, are now a lot more difficult.  It’s things like this that define who you, so when you find you can’t do them anymore you lose part of who you are.  You have to hold on to as much as you can and adapt the way you do things.

The first topic of conversation when seeing someone is invariably how my sight is or other vision related topics.  I’m as guilty of it as the next person because it has become the major factor in my life and everything I do.  I’m the severely visually impaired bloke, the blind guy, the one with the dodgy vision.

I was also the one who went to Glastonbury Festival every year and I was determined this wasn’t going to change, just because I’m losing my sight.

Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury is Europe's largest and longest running Music and Performing Arts festival.  I first attended in 1993 and haven’t missed one since 1999.  It’s something I do, my escape, my annual holiday.  The thought of missing it is upsetting. 

Last year the festival’s final headline act was Stevie Wonder.  He made a speech at the end of his set about how the world should be accessible to all.  It seemed deeply personal and I stood there, not knowing if it was my last festival because of my failing eyesight, with tears in my eyes.  When it came to the tickets for 2011’s event going on sale, all doubts of whether I should go or not went out of the window.  Somehow I would make it.

My friends all said help.  They would get me there and help me round, even though my condition had got worse since last year.

Getting there:
Once I’d secured my ticket I contacted the festival staff about getting a disabled pass.  This meant we’d be able to use the disabled car park, closer to the camping and if I wanted the disabled camping area too.  I decided against the latter, I’d be camping with my large group of friends with the rest of the 170,000 party goers.

With a Disabled Parking sticking in the windscreen of my friends car we were ushered to the disabled car park quickly and efficiently, parked up and in the queue for gates open.  Inevitably for Glastonbury, the heavens opened as we stood waiting to get our wristbands and information and this is where I have my only complaint about the festival’s disabled facilities.  It took forever to get the things we needed to get onto the main site.  We were queued outside in the rain for nearly three hours, with no cover.  People with various disabilities, including in wheelchairs, got soaked as the few staff did their best to reduce the queue of maybe 150 people. 

We then had to wait a long time for a minibus to ferry us to disabled camping. At least we hadn’t had to lug all our stuff across the huge main car parks.  It was a good service but did not take into account the numbers of people that were there for the opening of the festival. 

On site facilities:
As well as being given the festival wristband to get into the site, i was given a disabled camping and disabled facilities wristband and a code for the disabled toilets.  I was also given a pass for a carer, who would be able to accompany me when using the facilities, such as the viewing platforms, and this could be transferred to anyone I wanted to take with me.

The facilities at the festival for disabled people were a great help.  Getting around the huge site, which for the rest of the year is a working farm.  Viewing platforms at the main stages meant disabled people could watch the bands from a flat, slightly raised and less crowded position.

Next to each platform and dotted around festival were disabled portaloos.  The toilets at Glastonbiry are infamous and have an (unfair) bad reputation (they’re better than most large festivals). 

Having larger, cleaner and more accessible toilets is a great help as getting through the crowds and then having to queue as a disabled person is a lot more difficult.  Having a small combination lock padlock could have been a bit of a problem for the toilets without attendants but there was always someone with me to help.  The attendants at the viewing platforms were very friendly and helpful, as were almost everyone on site.  On seeing my white cane/wristband everyone was more than willing to give assistance, staff and punters alike.

Getting around:
it certainly helped that I know the massive site well and I was with a good crowd of friends, who were always willing to help (including putting my tent up, thanks guys!).  We made sure we camped near a path, with clear access (i.e. no guy ropes in the way).

Using my white long cane helped in a couple of ways.  It showed people of my disability and people would be happy to make room for me, to the extent that my group of friends started putting me up front when going anywhere because it acted liked the parting of the Red Sea !

Being a farm the ground is very uneven and rocky in places, making it treacherous at the best of times, when it rains it has an added hazard. it the wet slippery mud (and gloopy stickiness as it dries) it’s impossible to swipe the cane as you would on pavement, so where possible I had to tap (or sometimes just hover) the cane.  This made each step on the un-even ground hard work, not knowing whether it would be a dip, a rise or even a rock or other object.  By concentrating and being careful it wasn’t too bad but it was mentally as well as physically tiring and took a lot longer than normal.

It always takes loner than you think to get anywhere at Glastonbury, even more so with a disability.  I missed a lot of things I had wanted to see, mostly because of the time it would have taken to travel between stages.  The festival organisers have helped out a bit with this by having a few paths via the back stage areas between a few of the main arenas.

Overall:
I’m glad I decided to go, whatever my worries were.  I saw some great bands and comedians, friends I hadn’t seen since last year’s festival and the group of friends I always camp and have a great laugh with.

It’s a daunting place to sighted people so it could be overwhelming to someone with vision impairment. 

I missed a lot of the extra things that make the festival so special: the site art and decoration, the circus acts and street performers, the crazy people that go and all the weird and wonderful wackiness.  When going from stage to stage I had to concentrate on where I was going so missed all the stalls and all variety of colourful sights.  But the atmosphere and the brilliant music on offer (U2, Paul Simon, Queens of the Stone Age, Biffi Clyro,  Morrissey, The Kills, The Wombles! etc. etc. etc.!!!) and the invaluable help from Glastonbury Festivals Ltd and some special friends, made it all worthwhile.

And the next one will be my 20 year anniversary ! So I can’t miss that one.