The Sitdown Café was launched at the Amsterdam Open Air festival on 1 June. Here, people with and without disabilities can meet each other. This playful café is a collaboration between Amsterdam Open Air and HandicapNL, which launched the Accessible Festivals project in 2019. With this, the foundation helps festival organisers improve their accessibility.
Many festivals have already taken steps in recent years to make their facilities more accessible, such as adjustments to the grounds and toilets. Yet people with disabilities still experience barriers to participating at festivals, when this is exactly what they need. That is why HandicapNL’s focus within Accessible Festivals this year is on stimulating encounters between people with and without disabilities. The Sitdown Café facilitates these encounters in an environment that lends itself ideally to this. After all, people come to a festival to enjoy the atmosphere, share a love of music and meet others.
A festival site is always a challenge for a wheelchair user. Mud, cables, grass, hills. But the small adjustments can make all the difference. For example, such a great accessible festival café in the middle of the festival site with a nice low bar. Then you immediately feel a bit more human! Just enjoying the festival with your friends without worries. Isn't that what everyone wants?
Amsterdam Open Air stands for inclusiveness and diversity and is keen to contribute to promoting the accessibility of festivals for people with disabilities. Together with HandicapNL, the festival management set up the Sitdown Café, the place where people with and without disabilities can party, dance, laugh, drink, play and sing together on equal terms. In the café, you will find something for everyone: DJs with and without disabilities play cosy hits, while the barman has a chat with you and the host chats things up.
Rarely have I seen people so positively out of their minds in unison. Besides being a great party bar, this is also a great tool for making your organisation inclusive. It allows you to literally have the conversation from a different point of view for once. I say: get up by sitting down!
Thanks to a staff mix of people with and without disabilities, a music interpreter for sign language and additional facilities such as Braille menu cards and an incentive-free room, the Sitdown Café becomes a truly inclusive environment where everyone is welcome. As the highlight of the evening, the roof lowers in a festive way, putting everyone – wheelchair user or not – at equal height. This allows them to meet at an equal height.
The Sitdown Café is a beautiful and accessible gathering of people with and without disabilities, everyone here is literally on an equal footing. This made me feel no less than others.
With the Sitdown Café, HandicapNL and Amsterdam Open Air want to show that everyone is welcome at festivals. Moreover, the café contributes to increasing the social accessibility of both festivals and society as a whole. The possibilities offered by the café ensure that everyone, with and without disabilities, can enjoy a festival equally.
I've been going to parties with my wheelchair for about 20 years, and festival partying was fine by me. But.... this was TOP arranged! Many festival organisations can learn a thing or two from this! Kudos to HandicapNL!
Moreover, at the Sitdown Café, festival-goers without disabilities can have an experience that changes their view of people with disabilities. This way, HandicapNL hopes that it will become as normal for someone with a disability to visit a festival as someone without a disability. And get a little closer to a world where everyone can dance together and visit their favourite artists. Every year, no fewer than 1,000 music festivals can be visited in the Netherlands.
Find more accessible festivals on the website of HandicapNL
Photos: Janneke Nooij
Source: Doe Onbeperkt Mee
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