Accessibility Award 2017

On 27 October 2017, the venue Gimle in Roskilde, Smukfest, Sølund Musik-Festival and STARS in Vordingborg were celebrated together with other enthusiasts in the industry at the Danish Life conference, Live Music Summit, for their work in making the live music an equal experience and opportunity for all.

In total, the Bevica Foundation awarded prizes to the industry for almost DKK 300,000, and the awards were presented by the singer Nabiha together with the chairman of the Bevica Foundation's Board of Directors.

The Bevica Foundation, Roskilde Festival, Muskelvindfonden and the Association of Young People with Disabilities have worked together with Dansk Live — through a workshop and with the awarding of the Bevica Foundation's Accessibility Prize — to promote the concept Volue — Live music for everyone.

A concept that the live music industry is well on the way to adopting, and which contains recommendations for what accessibility is all about. And where accessibility is not just about physical accessibility, but equally about communication and attitude.

For example, a few of the recommendations are:
“It's better to go in the back door than stand outside.” and
“You go a long way with a clear message.”

One of the venues that have worked very ambitiously and purposefully to create accessibility to music experiences is Gimle in Roskilde. They therefore received the Bevica Foundation's Accessibility Award 2017 of DKK 100,000.

Singer Nabiha, who as a jury member helped motivate the selection of Gimle as the main laureate, says:

“We in the jury were delighted with Gimle's soaring level of ambition and were impressed by their way of thinking about accessibility.
Gimle thinks as much about the social accessibility as the physical setting of the venue.
They make it more comfortable for people with both visible and invisible disabilities to gather around the free musical community, and that should be rewarded.”

Also Beautiful party, Sølund Music Festival and STARS in Vordingborg received a particularly high recognition for their work with and focus on accessibility — with awards of DKK 50,000 and DKK 2 × 25,000, respectively.

But the accolades didn't stop there. Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bevica Foundation Torben Svanberg surprised the conference guests by sending a donation of DKK 10,000 to each of the other venues and festivals that had also been candidates for the Bevica Foundation's Accessibility Award:

“We at Bevica Fonden have been very pleased to see that so many venues and festivals are passionate about giving people with mobility disabilities the opportunity to participate in live concerts.
So we want to acknowledge that, and then of course we hope that they succeed in their ambitions — to inspire the industry,”
says Torben Svanberg, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bevica Foundation.

The following venues and festivals received a pat of the shoulders:

• BETA Amager Bio
• The Incineration in Albertslund
• Boys Island Garage Rock Festival
• The Gorge Festival
• Musichuzet Bornholm
• Slagelse Music House
• Venue Stengade
• Student House Aarhus
• Tuno Festival

Fact

jury

In the jury for the Bevica Foundation's Accessibility Award 2017 sat

• Nabiha Bensouda, artist
• Marianne Kofoed, Director of the Bevica Foundation
• Henrik Ib Jørgensen, Director of the Muskelvindfonden
• Henrik Bondo Nielsen, Head of Division at Roskilde Festival
• Anders Berenth, Association of Young People with Disabilities — SUMH
• Michael Nymann Folmer, administrator and organisational officer at Dansk Live

Gimle

Gimle is Roskilde's regional venue, student house and youth culture house. More than 400 annual cultural events are held both inside and outside the house. At its core is concert operation with annual presentation of more than 300 bands. In addition to the venue portion, Gimle operates a cafe and a night cafe that are open every Friday and Saturday.

Gimle is strongly committed to the cultural life of Roskilde with cooperation with the city's other actors, not least Roskilde Festival

Read more about Gimle.

Volue — Live music for everyone

Volue is an innovative project that works to strengthen accessibility to live music for people with movement disabilities. Volue started in 2014 on the initiative of the Muskelvindfonden with support from Roskilde Festival and Realdania and with the Association of Young People with Disabilities as project manager. The aim was, among other things, to develop a series of recommendations for venues and festivals. In order to spread awareness of these recommendations, Dansk Live joined the project in 2016.

Read more about Danish Live

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