Mansfield festival makes access top priority

Final preparations are in hand for this year’s Full Shebang Festival on Saturday 7 September in Mansfield town centre, part of which includes ensuring a number of access provisions are in place to make the event as easy as possible for people to attend.  

From BSL interpretation, live captioning, and live audio description to accessible festival guides, quiet zones, and noise cancelling headphones, the festival organisers, First Art, have been teamed up with other support organisations to help improve festival goers’ experiences.   

D/deaf audiences will again be able to enjoy performances with live BSL (British Sign Language) interpretation including live singing, as well as the support of a roving interpreter, should this be required. 

New this year is live captioning for performances. First Art will be using the Difference Engine, a system developed by theatre company Talking Birds, which, via a free app downloaded on to mobile devices, delivers live captions.  

Partially sighted and blind visitors will be able to use the live audio description service, which is in place for most of the performances.   

In addition, the following will be in place, many ahead of the event, to allow visitors with differing access needs to plan in advance:  

• A large-print, accessible festival guide produced alongside the standard Festival Guide 

• Full festival programme available online 

• Festival Guide available as a downloadable PDF format, and digital version ahead of the day  

• An Easy Read Guide for the Full Shebang 

• Easy Read Guides or Visual Stories for some performances 
   

The online and downloadable Festival Guides will be available at www.thefullshebang.co.uk.  

On the day, visitors will also find: 

• Access Ambassadors are on hand to support 

• A dedicated Quiet Zone is available in the central library,  

• Noise-cancelling headphones available to borrow 

• Changing Places facilities at Four Seasons Shopping Centre and Mansfield Museum  

Maggie Anguish, a local to Mansfield who is severely partially sighted, has been coming to The Full Shebang for the last three years. She said: 

"Thought has been given to all aspects of accessibility including me as someone who can see a little and find crowds disorientating. 
 
“Being in a busy town centre environment, let alone a festival event, can be exhausting but having areas specifically for those with accessibility issues was such a relief. Help was always at hand, with easy-to-find people around to support those whose enjoyment of the day needed just a little more assistance, like me.  It made all the difference.” 
 

Since attending her first Full Shebang, Maggie has become a member of the sight loss charity My Sight charity and Nottinghamshire Sight Loss Council (SLC). 

“My first Full Shebang experience encouraged me to join My Sight and then go on to become a member of the Nottinghamshire Sight Loss Council. This has made me feel more proactive about improving events for people with sight loss.” 

Over the last year First Art has been working with Nottinghamshire SLC to review aspects such as the Festival Guide, Accessible Guide, and signage.  

The Sight Loss Councils, funded by the Thomas Pocklington Trust, are regional groups led by blind and partially sighted people. Together, they work with organisations to ensure what they do is accessible and inclusive, using their lived experience. 

Matt Harrison, East Midlands Engagement Manager at the Thomas Pocklington Trust, said: 

"First Art has already considered numerous ways to make The Full Shebang as inclusive as possible, not only for a blind and partially sighted audience, but for people with other disabilities too.   

"Sometimes people forget that a partially sighted person may not be able to access a street performance in the way that someone with full sight would, but offering live audio description of the show makes it much more inclusive and accessible. 

"It's been great supporting First Art in advising on ways to present their printed materials, and in checking the accessibility of online resources too.   

"This is just the start though, and we hope to deliver vision awareness and sighted guiding sessions to staff and festival volunteers to further enhance the positive experience for any blind or partially sighted festival goer.” 

First Art’s Marketing and Audience Development Manager, Kate Learmouth, said: 

“Working with those that have lived experience of any disability is critical to a better understanding of the difficulties faced in everyday life and then looking at how we remove those barriers to make attending things like our events a possibility.  

 
“Access is something we’re very passionate about are trying to embed as much as we can across everything we do. We’re always learning and there is always more we can do. We’d love to see access provision rolled out across more events in the area.”  

A full round-up of all the access provisions and links to online resources can be found at https://firstart.org.uk/tfs2024/access/ or by following the links on the festival website.  

The Full Shebang Festival takes place in Mansfield Town Centre on Saturday 7 September, 11am – 5pm and is free to attend.  

All details about what’s on and other information can be found at www.thefullshebang.co.uk.