{"id":660644,"date":"2026-06-27T06:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T06:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/660644\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T06:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T06:28:08","slug":"are-festivals-leaving-neurodivergent-fans-behind-some-think-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/660644\/","title":{"rendered":"Are festivals leaving neurodivergent fans behind? Some think so"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">This is so staff can recognise when someone &#8220;is having a meltdown or struggling&#8221;, he adds. The National Autistic Society<a href=\"https:\/\/www.autism.org.uk\/advice-and-guidance\/behaviour\/meltdowns\/all-audiences\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> says a meltdown is &#8220;an intense response to an overwhelming situation&#8221;, external<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Richardson suggests trained staff should wear identifiable clothing, which would help those looking for them at an event. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Paul Hawkins, a boss at Attitude is Everything, the charity working to improve  experiences for disabled people at gigs and events, says the challenge for organisers comes with recognising the varying requirements of individuals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Different neurodivergent people have very different experiences,&#8221; he tells the BBC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He agrees quiet spaces and sensory tents have had &#8220;a massive impact&#8221; on the festival scene over the past few years, but says there&#8217;s still a long way to go in crowd management, and to create quieter routes for people to reach accessible spaces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;There&#8217;s not really a lot of excuses for festivals not getting the basics right because the information is all out there and it&#8217;s quite easy to find,&#8221; he adds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is so staff can recognise when someone &#8220;is having a meltdown or struggling&#8221;, he adds. The National&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-660644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}