Terres du Son Festival: the “obstacle course” of disability on trial

Under overwhelming heat, Valentin Oddo, 31, volunteers to participate in the “han-situation” workshops which aim to understand the constraints linked to disabilities, an unprecedented initiative of the Terres du Son festival, near Tours. Under the barnums, the specialized agency Com une difference, at the origin of the project, asks him to draw a handicap out of the six proposed. For Valentin, it will be: "going to the bathroom in a wheelchair".

The thirty-year-old settles into the chair. And for a quarter of an hour, he is confronted with the difficulties encountered in descending or ascending an access ramp. He moves between the spectators on the plastic traffic lanes, provided to avoid passing through the grass of the meadow. "I didn't think it was so physical! With the bumps and the elevations, it's sometimes an obstacle course”, is surprised Valentin. On its way, festival-goers discover what the floor mats are for.

Alice, 18, who had sat on them while waiting for singer Orelsan to arrive on stage, gets up spontaneously: "I didn't know they were used for the circulation of people with reduced mobility", apologizes. -She. For Cyril Bart, founder of Com une difference, this is one of the objectives of these workshops. “Many solutions like walkways are ignored by onlookers. We want to raise their awareness so that they can better integrate the situations of people with disabilities at the festival,” he explains. Cyril Bart specifies that certain handicap situations are not always visible. Diseases, such as diabetes, can be very debilitating. People can be hard of hearing or visually impaired without being deaf or blind.

“80% of disabilities are invisible. The behavior of those who are carriers may surprise. Thanks to these actions in the festivals, and to these workshops, which are a first in France, we reach a young audience who will be more benevolent because they will have the necessary knowledge, ”he says. Mathieu Robin manages accessibility issues at the event. Himself suffering from a bone disease, he believes that too many people with disabilities do not allow themselves to come to festivals.

“This year, a professional is doing audio description for the visually impaired. Vibrating vests, allowing you to feel the vibrations, are distributed to the hearing impaired. A relaxation reception area is available. A secure place is dedicated to taking medication and injections, ”he lists. The festival's "Accessibility and Disability" team mobilizes around thirty volunteers every day from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m.

“We have also set up a dedicated telephone line so that festival-goers can specify their needs in advance. And so that we can adapt to them and give them an answer as quickly as possible”, adds Julien Macou, who co-constructs the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) action plans at the heart of the organization of the festival. The Terres du Son festival, whose 2023 edition was held from July 7 to 9 in Monts (Indre-et-Loire), works all year round with more than fifteen medico-social structures.