An Elton John fan has described how she had "never felt so conscious of my disability" and claimed she was made to feel "neglected, like a lesser human being" at the Swansea.com stadium concert on June 29.
Natasha Didenko, 36, went to see the Rocket Man singer with three family members as part of a 'ladies evening out' but claimed she encountered severe problems with a one-way system in and out of the ground which had left her in pain and exhausted following the show. You can get more Swansea news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
Despite enjoying Elton's iconic hits, she claimed the overall organisation and experience was left tainted. Natasha, who works with wellbeing and support in her employment has vowed to never return to a stadium-hosted event and said she hoped Elton John would be made aware of the "pain and distress" caused to a portion of his fan base.
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Natasha has had mobility issues since having spinal surgery in 2020 while other members of her party at the concert suffer with arthritis. She paid £20 to use an 'accessible' parking space at the stadium, but initially found them all to be occupied, with six being used by an unoccupied cherry picker machine. There were a total of 32 disabled spaces available. You can read more stories about Swansea by clicking here.
The group did eventually find a space in the disabled car park, which was on the western side of the stadium, and walked to the south gate to enquire where the entrance for disabled users was. They claimed they were told to head to the north gate, but when they arrived the staff at the north gate sent them back to the south again, which then sent them back to the north once more! There were around 30 other disabled people making the same journey.
"We got to the northern gate for a second time and there was around 30 of us just standing outside refusing to move and begging for assistance, we were exhausted and in pain and nobody seemed to know what they were doing," claimed Natasha. "There was no separate entrance or exit for wheelchair or mobility-impaired users and it got to the point where we just had to stand outside the gate and demand to be let in. There were people in wheelchairs and crutches and they expected them to go back and forth."
"The treatment was completely inhumane, the lack of assistance, the forgetfulness with no signposting and misuse of pre-booked accessible parking, I believe shows a lack of compassion, responsibility and care," she claimed.
Natasha added that, whilst staff communicated between gates over the location of the entrance, the gates were locked behind them as staff exited and entered the grounds.
"It was humiliating, we were made to feel lesser and it is a direct act of discrimination, in this day and age it was completely unacceptable" she claimed. And she argued that she was made "to feel worthless and inferior in comparison to able-bodied human-beings" because of the one-way system in place at the end of the concert.
Natasha and her party, alongside other disability users, claim they were forced into a "crowded" one-way system that saw the record 24,000 people attending crammed together, shoulder to shoulder.
Natasha claimed it took her an hour, with eight breaks, to walk a mile round the whole radius of the stadium to the opposite end where the accessible car park was located. She claimed the walk and its duration left her in "physical pain", requiring painkillers even 24 hours following the event.
"I just wanted to make people aware of the accessibility issues that were present on the day, we should not have been treated in such an inhumane way and I hope measures are taken to help resolve this for the future. The behaviour and conditions put onto the disabled community and their carers through the whole concert was incomprehensible," she claimed.
"If Elton John is ever made aware of how much pain and distress a large group of his fan base have been through, then hopefully he’ll refuse to work with any of the organisations again."
A statement from a Swansea City spokesperson said: “We are disappointed to hear about an alleged negative experience at the Elton John concert at the Swansea.com Stadium. Accessibility and mobility issues were an integral part of the planning process for this event. An accessible entry lane was clearly advertised in advance to assist those with disability or mobility needs.
“An additional accessibility lane was also created at another entrance gate to offer further assistance to customers and was monitored throughout with queues at a minimum. To assist customers, the stadium provided disability liaison stewards whose sole purpose at the event was to help any concert-goer that required additional assistance.
“We acknowledge that a small number of disabled car parking spaces were allocated to the production of the show. However, to mitigate this we offered customers the opportunity to purchase over 100 accessible parking spaces on-site. Any customers who registered an accessible requirement for this event were afforded priority to purchase.
“We pride ourselves on being an inclusive venue that is accessible to all guests for every event that we host.”
WalesOnline has approached Marshall Arts, which was also involved in organising the event, for comment.
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