On the 23rd and 24th of July, I went to a very wet Splendour Festival in Nottingham. In this post, I will review my experience at Splendour Festival 2023, including how accessible it was.
Location
the festival was held on the grounds of Wollaton Hall, a stately home in Nottingham. There are sprawling grasslands around the hall with some hills and trees. It’s usually a Deer Park, but I saw no deer over the weekend. I guess they aren’t into music that much.
Accessibility
accessibility was good for Splendour Festival, in my opinion. The ground was easy for me to drive over as it wasn’t too bumpy or muddy. I have been to festivals where I got stuck in the mud in the field, but that wasn’t the case here. Even though it had rained for most of the weekend, there were only a few muddy areas, and they put straw over those.
There were accessible viewing platforms at the 2 main stages. They also had 2 accessible portaloos on each viewing platform, which was good. In my post about the last time I went to Splendour Festival in 2017, I mentioned that the viewing platforms only had one portaloo on them. So that’s an improvement.
However, some people were using the accessible toilets when they shouldn’t have. Only people with a wristband were supposed to be allowed onto the viewing platform where the toilets were. But it didn’t seem like the stewards were stopping people who didn’t have a wristband from using the accessible toilets. At least not all the time.
There is a changing places toilet in the stable block building of the park, so that was useful. It did take a while to track down the key for it, though. We asked the stewards to try and find the key, and eventually, they did, but it would have been better if they knew where it was at the start.
The blue badge parking was not far from the festival entrance. But the car park had some gravel, and parts were a bit bumpy. There was a large rut in one area of the car park, which I had to be careful to avoid in the dark.
The Music
There were a good number of well-known artists at Splendour. These included Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Madness, Jake Shears, Altered Images, Inspiral Carpets, and more. Plus, there were a lot of lesser-known ones.
My favourite was Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, but it could have been better. At the time they were on, about 9 PM on Sunday night, it was cold and pouring with rain, dampening the spirits (and my clothes) a little.
There were 4 stages in all. The headliners played on 2 of the bigger stages, and there were a couple of other smaller stages elsewhere. I mostly spent time by the bigger stages.
Conclusion
Splendour Festival is a well-organised family-friendly festival and well worth attending. Most importantly, it’s accessible. I saw many other wheelchair users there, including those using manual wheelchairs. It’s great that they have a changing places toilet on site and viewing platforms at the main stages. Although it would have been better if there was more shelter because of the torrential rain. There were a few tents but otherwise not much shelter from the rain.
