Folk high school students: We want to include everyone in the concert – so what do we do?

"It’s the first time we’ve worked with this, so we were like: Okay, we want to include everyone, so what should we do? And then it became a bit overwhelming because there were so many groups of people you want to include," says Mikala, a student at Roskilde Festival Højskole.

Together with Fiona, she is studying event management and, as part of a course at the school, has worked on planning and hosting a universally designed concert in connection with the school's Orange Wednesdays. Orange Wednesdays are the school's public events, where they invite people in for concerts, debates, and lectures.

One of the first things they discussed during the planning phase was universal design versus accessibility and what the differences are. They then brainstormed things to consider when incorporating universal design into their concerts.

"We kept thinking of new people we could include. So, in the end, we had a huge board filled with ideas on how to incorporate it. And then it became a bit of an overwhelming project. A working group was set up, and we just thought: It’s a huge job to have to incorporate all of this," says Fiona.

But even though it seemed overwhelming at one point, it turned out that you can go a long way just by making a few small changes.

"Just having gone through all these thoughts makes it better already, because we didn't end up making huge changes, but just the fact that we had thought about it and maybe made a few small adjustments and just raised awareness about it," explains Fiona.

By simply drawing attention to how they had worked to create an experience for more people, they also got the audience to reflect, they say.

"We were hosts for the event, where we stood and presented it as people arrived. It made the audience think it through instead of just going to the concert. Then they have something to think about regarding this whole concept of universal design and what could be done better," highlights Mikala.

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