Our Live Events Access Charter is an industry standard designed to help you build disability equality into all aspects of your venue or event.
What is the Live Events Access Charter?
The Live Events Access Charter is a framework to support and encourage live event organisations to progress their inclusive practices for diverse disabled people* across all areas of their business.
We see implementing accessible practice as a standard, not a luxury.
* At Attitude Is Everything we are committed to working intersectionally and encourage others to do the same. This means recognising that having access needs in addition to having protected characteristics, such as being LGBTQIA+ or of the global majority, will impact what the individual needs and what support organisations should offer. Respecting all aspects of someone’s identity is key to providing the best support.
Through our membership and awards, we aim to empower, celebrate, and inform, while supporting industry professionals to be ambitious and innovative in their practice. It is a collaborative initiative for community and peer support to make access a part of all elements of live music and events. We are community-led and industry-fed in our practice.
Useful pages
- Charter guidance, content, and essential criteria
- Testimonials
- Understanding the Charter: For audiences, professionals, and artists
Who is the Charter for?
The Charter is for venues and festivals who shape and participate in the live events industry to navigate accessibility expectations and standards. Charter members can expect to benefit through improved access standards, provisions and the expertise we’ve built through pioneering this work since 2000.
What are the benefits of joining?
- An award for organisations delivering on best practice
- Guidance, tools and resources to implement inclusive practices
- Better experiences for diverse disabled people
- Staff are better equipped to deliver inclusive events
- Improved community engagement
- Networking opportunities with other organisations using the forum
Membership levels
The Charter is designed to support venues and festivals to build on their access provisions, this is reflected in our award tiers and what they represent (listed below):
Charter awards last for two years, members are expected to resubmit within two years, even if their aim is to maintain their current award level.
How long does it take to achieve the award?
Each level grows on the previous, therefore it is useful for organisations to start at Bronze and take time to work through each level. It is expected that it will take new venues and festivals at least three months to put the guidance into practice and then submit the assessment for the award level, depending on the starting point. Our team will then aim to review and respond within 6 weeks.
Generally, we recommend that you achieve your Charter status within six months of signing up.
For festivals, we encourage you to sign up at least three months before your event to allow enough time to complete the process and meet your desired level.
Interested in joining?
To become a Charter member, you will need to register your interest using our online form. Please note that we are only able to approve membership for organisations who demonstrate the capacity to commit to the charter and deliver on the expectations.
What happens after registering?
Potential Charter members will attend a virtual welcome meeting and be set up with an account on our online portal. The portal contains extensive resources, including guidance, templates, and examples – these have been carefully put together to assist members to integrate good practice. Please note that whilst you will likely have a project lead, the process requires cross-organisation support and compliance.
At each level there are Member Expectations, which are based on accessibility standards. Using the portal, members will upload evidence and answer assessment questions for their accreditation. To receive an award, members will need to demonstrate that they meet all essential criteria and the minimum pass rate in the assessment. Below are the minimum pass rates:
| Bronze and Silver | Gold and Platinum | |
| Grassroots | 75% | 80% |
| Standard | 85% | 90% |
Once the assessment has been completed, a member of our team will review the submission before confirming accreditation for those who have passed and sending an award certificate. The submission may also include feedback from our Mystery Shoppers, and we will conduct further examination of new members, those who are moving up a level, or where we have received negative feedback.
Our team is here to support you throughout, ensuring you have everything you need to improve accessibility and implement inclusive practices effectively.
Our advice
The Charter is designed to support you to integrate best practice in a sustainable way and we would encourage you to consider how engaging with this process at this stage might develop over time. If you have not engaged with the Charter before, we would recommend starting with Bronze in the first instance, which will ensure that you have all the foundations in place to keep building on good practice!
History of the Live Events Access Charter
Until its name change in 2022, our Charter was known as Attitude is Everything’s Charter of Best Practice.
- The Attitude is Everything Charter of Best Practice and pilot programme was launched at Camden Dingwalls, London in September 2000.
- The early years saw us sign up venues and events of every scale across the UK, including Band on the Wall, Sage Gateshead and Reading Festival.
- 2012 saw us split the Charter into two frameworks – one for venues and one for festivals.
- In 2013, The O2 was the first arena in the UK to be awarded Gold.
- In 2014, Glastonbury was the first camping festival to gain the Gold Award, whilst 300-capacity venue The Boileroom in Guildford became our 100th Charter sign-up.
- 2015 saw Band on the Wall become the first small venue in the UK to be awarded Gold. That year also saw the first Pride event join the Charter – Pride Cymru.
- In 2016, Union Chapel and the church of St John at Hackney became the first church-based live music venues to join the Charter.
- In 2017, we launched a version of the Charter specifically for Grassroots music venues in consultation with Music Venue Trust, with Tunbridge Wells Forum being the first to be awarded. This year also saw the Live Events Access Charter being endorsed by UK Music’s ‘Live Music Group’ and the UK Government as the ‘Best Practice Access Standards in Live Music.’
- Despite the impact of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, sign-ups in the period continued, including Alexandra Palace, and Green Door Store.
- In 2022, we released the latest version of the Charter, now called the Live Events Access Charter.
- Over 210 venues and events have gained awards to date.
- In 2023 we signed off Southbank Centre as our first Platinum Venue, and Greenwich+Docklands International Festival as our first Platinum Festival.
- In 2025, we launched our revamped Live Events Access Charter!