I’ve been to every single year of The Curve Fashion Festival, I’ve covered the event, raved about it, blogged about it, told brands to go and support it. Usually, I’ve gone to the event with a brand, and that has meant that I’ve done social takeovers, blog posts, Instagrams, and more on behalf of a brand in return for them paying for my hotel, travel, and ticket. This year my brand collaboration didn’t go through and as I’ve not been great health-wise this year, I wasn’t planning on going. As I hadn’t attended any plus size events during 2018, I started to think that maybe I should go, see my friends, bloggers I’ve met, and say hi to the brands I’ve worked with.
I kept changing my mind until eventually my parents thought it would be a good idea and decided to pay for us to go as a birthday treat. I ended up buying the tickets, as even though I agreed to do a blog post for the event in exchange for them, by the time I eventually got hold of them it was too late. Nothing was gifted/paid for by anyone other than my parents and me. However, even if I had been working with a brand or did a blog post in return for tickets, I would not have been any less ‘vocal’ on the event. So, why am I writing this post?
To cut a long story short, the accessibility at The Curve Fashion Festival this year was extremely difficult and frustrating. Sure, St George’s Hall is technically legally compliant, but it really did not feel that way. It was incredibly hard to get any information on the disabled entrance, or even what side of the building the event was going to be at. Mine and other’s tweets were met with some not so great replies. Eventually, the map was posted, but that turned out to be extremely unhelpful and not accurate at all. People kept saying that’s it’s a beautiful venue which is great, but I went to see fashion, not a historic building.
When we arrived the road to the disabled access and the closest drop-off point, was blocked. A roadblock because of the Christmas Market. If we were to have been dropped off there, there was actually no dropped curb for my wheelchair to get off the other side of the road. Luckily, our very kind taxi driver saw my panicked face and went around the block. We were lucky, I doubt that happened to others. To get to the lift to enter the event, we started off on one long slightly elevated hallway, that then leads onto another uneven long hallway. It must have taken 3-5 minutes just to get to the lift. We weren’t there yet. After waiting for the slowest lift I’ve ever come across, we then headed to another hallway, which then leads to the registration room.
Even though The Curve Fashion Festival map made it look like there was a separate registration for disabled people, the registration was down a couple of stairs. We asked where to register and someone pointed at the table as if I was going to put my wheelchair on stair mode. At this point, the organizer of the event came over and asked them to get the tickets. Again I doubt many other people would have had this and instead would have been left in a busy walkway, whilst someone else went and got them. We were finally in! Except, we weren’t and it was another 5-minute walk. Now abled people at the event will be thinking, it wasn’t that long of a walk? No, it wasn’t for abled people, but for us, it was. It was extremely difficult and draining even before we got into the actual event. Another wheelchair user and her daughter entered at the same time as us and commented on how she’s already done.
We finally made it to the Fashion Hall entrance where I was greeted with smiley faces of people I recognised and have met over the years thanks to these events and blogging. I was told there would be no chance of me getting around and that it was packed. More friendly people who follow me on Instagram came up to say hey and said the same thing. By standing here for around 10 minutes, it seemed like hundreds of people had entered the room and went past us. We said our goodbyes and headed in. It took a full hour just to get nearly to the other side, we couldn’t actually get to the last few stalls and had to exit into the hallway. My mum and boyfriend had already escaped during the first row out of three, as it was just too much for my disabled mum. My boyfriend saw cushioned chairs pilled up behind some glass doors, almost as if the good chairs had been put away and replaced with the ridiculously thin ones?
People were so apologetic and honestly could not help bashing and bumping into me in my wheelchair, it was just the sheer amount of people and lack of space. Surely The Curve Fashion Festival is an event for fat people, so we’re going to need more space than the usual, but even some comments I’ve read said that thinner people would have struggled just as much with that many people. I couldn’t get to any of the stalls to look around, there wasn’t space. We kept hitting things, metal poles that were holding the stores up, and some people actually huffed at us, as if it was our fault. There was no way we could get to the bar, the cake stand table was too close to the column and there was only just enough room to very carefully navigate around.
We found my mum, and a friend, and agreed there was no way we could stay because it simply was not accessible. Even the seats weren’t fat-friendly and the benches sounded like they were going to break. Many people said the same. We accidentally stumbled into the VIP room, but a blogger friend had given me her VIP ticket as she couldn’t make it so it was fine for us to nip in. I took the opportunity to quickly snap some photos as I know people always want to know what the VIP part looks like. Most people replied to my photos with the word ‘sad’, but I’ll let you make your own mind up.
My mum and boyfriend then left and we said we were going to quickly try and get around just to make sure I could see as many friends as possible and make the trip worth it. It must have taken us about 40 minutes and we only saw a few people. One part of the Fashion Hall got blocked off and made into a row for single file meaning we couldn’t get passed at all, this was for a meet and great appearance.
Throughout the day of The Curve Fashion Festival I saw so many people with visible and invisible disabilities struggling, I talked to them, and everyone said the same. It wasn’t accessible. You cannot class that as accessible at all. Even abled people were struggling. It was far too hot, and I later found out that people had panic attacks due to the lack of space. People on crutches were struggling with people knocking them and the amount of walking. People in wheelchairs, including myself, were having to apologise constantly and thank people for letting us move that one inch further along. Many larger fats have later told me that they didn’t feel comfortable at the event at all, now this is an event FOR fat people.
Every fat person should feel comfortable but with theatre seats for the catwalk (I never made it up), and tiny seats all around, how could they? I definitely would not have fit on one of the chairs. There was actually no food inside the event either other than cakes, you had to go outside to the Christmas Markets and bring it back in. The markets were on cobbles which meant it wasn’t possible for wheelchairs or people with crutches to go on them. This is a 7 hour-long event with no food, and a packed cocktail bar. Even the odd water dispenser we saw was empty.
A lot of people have said they’re a new event and they’ll learn, but this is the 4th event and last year’s venue was accessible. There was food, drinks, and it was the first room in the exhibition center, making it about a minute walk to get in and out, with COMFY seats in between. It had everything that this year didn’t. A lot of us tried to ask about accessibility months in advance, we could have prepared differently or decided not to go at all if it was too much for us, but this information wasn’t given until a week before. I want to support the community as much as possible but I really cannot stay quiet when so many people are out of pocket, and in severe pain because of the lack of accessibility. I really do think that The Curve Fashion Festival should issue refunds to anyone who had to leave early because of the access issues, or their mental health with it being overcrowded.
To make next year truly accessible it would be a great idea to consult disabled people, but not just with invisible illnesses. They need to consult with people with wheelchairs and crutches. See if the event is actually accessible and then ensure that there’s enough space and it’s not overcrowded. DDA compliance is a legal term and it doesn’t guarantee true accessibility.
You may just think ‘oh she had a bad time but everyone else is saying it’s amazing’, please do look at my Facebook and Instagram posts where people shared their experiences too. I was the biggest fan of The Curve Fashion Festival and wanted them to succeed but how they have treated me after I spoke out about this is truly so disappointing and I will no longer be supporting The Curve Fashion Festival.