Festival camping with disability is 'big milestone'

A woman with a spinal cord injury has described being able to camp at a festival for the first time due to an on-site adapted tent as a "big milestone".

Lucy Robinson, who sustained the injury when she was 18 and uses a wheelchair, has attended Wilderness Festival at Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire, for more than a decade but has never been able to camp overnight.

However, this year she stayed in an adapted tent installed by local charity Festival Spirit, which is heated, and has medical equipment, such as electric beds and hoists, for people with life-limiting conditions and disabilities.

Ms Robinson said it "helps me feel safer" because if she gets too cold it can lead to respiratory problems.

This year Lucy persuaded her friend Michelle to attend a festival for the first time

This year's event, from 1 - 4 August, marked 18 years since Ms Robinson sustained her injury while sailing.

In previous years, the 36-year-old has travelled home each night of the festival to sleep.

Camping allowed her to experience events she typically missed, like its annual cricket match.

"To watch that with my friends and family was just fabulous," she said.

She continued: "It's a big milestone and a celebration of life.

"Festivals in general are about meeting people and new experiences, and free love and hugs.

"There's an inclusivity, that anyone can come."

'Profound' impact

Festival Spirit co-founder Steve Clarke said the impact for guests was often "profound".

He said they regularly told him "it gave me a weekend being myself, not defined by my wheelchair, not defined by my condition".

He recalled one guest who lost his legs in an explosion during conflict in Afghanistan, told him it had given him the confidence to try other things, and he went on to become a Paralympian.

Festival Spirit co-founder Steve Clarke has been helping people with disabilities camp at Wilderness since 2012

Festival Spirit is run by volunteers and has also provided an adapted tent for Womad festival.

Those wishing to be guests in the tent, which is located by accessible toilets and showers and has access to a fridge storage for medicines, must contact the charity and apply for a place.

Mr Clarke said inclusivity at festivals was not just about accessible campsites or viewing platforms, but about "an attitude that says people matter, we want [disabled] people to come as well as everybody else".

Ms Robinson said: "If you come with Festival Spirit you're coming with a safety blanket and somebody whose going to make sure it's going to be ok."

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