This year, the Amsterdam STRAF_WERK Festival is open to everyone: “People with disabilities also just want to have a good time”

A wheelchair-friendly stand at each stage, refrigeration for medicines and a special area to relax. These are examples of adjustments to the site that have made the festival accessible to people with disabilities.

The organization of STRAF_WERK Festival came up with the idea after they were asked to place a chair in the audience at a previous edition. This also allowed a visitor with MS disease to attend the festival. “I made zero effort at the time,” says STRAF_WERK producer Kelamo Masali. “Then I thought, what if we really put in the effort, how many people can we make happy.”

Visiting a festival with her wheelchair was not always obvious for Chloé: “For a very long time I did not dare to go to festivals, because what if it rains? Then I get stuck with my tires”. She is therefore very happy with all the changes to STRAF_WERK: “They have placed a lot of wooden decking here, so if it rains I can still roll around.”

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Still need a lot of work

Still, a lot still needs to be done, according to Jeroen van de Koppel of HandicapNL: “In 2019, of the one and a half million festival tickets, only fifty were suitable for people with disabilities, which is of course far too few.” That is why the handicap organization offers help to festival organizers to make their events more accessible.

“Five festivals have already taken the step this year to become more accessible together with us. We actually hope that in a few years all festivals in the Netherlands will be really accessible for people with disabilities,” says van de Koppel. Chloé agrees. She hopes that STRAF_WERK Festival can inspire other festivals and parties to also become more accessible: “I think people underestimate that people with disabilities also just want to have a good time. I hope that after they see all this, a lot of festivals will copy this.”