Final preparations are under way for this year’s The Full Shebang Festival in Mansfield town centre.

These include ensuring access provisions are in place to make the event as easy as possible for people to attend.

From BSL interpretation, live captioning, and live audio description to accessible festival guides, quiet zones, and noise cancelling headphones, festival organiser First Art has been teamed up with other support organisations to help improve festivalgoers’ experiences.

The one-day festival, returning for a fifth time on Saturday, 7th September, is free and open to everyone. Along with live performances, it will feature street theatre, workshops, live music, and more — featuring acts from close to home and further afield.

D/deaf audiences will again be able to enjoy performances with live British Sign Language interpretation, including live singing, as well as the support of a roving interpreter, should this be required.

New this year is live captioning for performances. First Art will be using the Difference Engine, a system developed by theatre company Talking Birds, which, via a free app downloaded on to mobile devices, delivers live captions.

Partially-sighted and blind visitors will be able to use the live audio description service for most performances. In addition, the following will be in place to allow visitors with differing access needs to plan in advance:

Large-print, accessible festival guide produced alongside the standard Festival Guide.

Full festival programme online.

Festival Guide available as a downloadable PDF format, and digital version ahead of the event.

Easy-read The Full Shebang Guide.

Easy-read guides or visual stories for some performances.

The online and downloadable Festival Guides will be available at www.thefullshebang.co.uk

On the day, visitors will also find:

Access Ambassadors to support visitors.
A dedicated Quiet Zone in Mansfield Library.
Noise-cancelling headphones available to borrow.
Changing Places facilities in Four Seasons Shopping Centre and Mansfield Museum.

Mansfield woman Maggie Anguish, who is severely partially sighted, has attended the last three festivals. She said: “Thought has been given to all aspects of accessibility, including me as someone who can see a little and find crowds disorientating.

“Being in a busy town centre environment, let alone a festival event, can be exhausting, but having areas specifically for those with accessibility issues was such a relief. Help was always at hand, with easy-to-find people around to support those whose enjoyment of the day needed just a little more assistance, like me. It made all the difference.”

Since attending her first The Full Shebang, Maggie has become a member of sight-loss charity My Sight and Nottinghamshire Sight Loss Council (SLC). Over the last year First Art has worked with Nottinghamshire SLC to review aspects, such as its Festival Guide, Accessible Guide, and signage.

Sight-loss councils, funded by the Thomas Pocklington Trust, are regional groups, led by blind and partially-sighted people, which work with organisations to ensure what they do is accessible and inclusive.

Matt Harrison, East Midlands engagement manager at the trust, added: “Sometimes people forget that a partially-sighted person may not be able to access a street performance in the way that someone with full sight would, but offering live audio description of the show makes it much more inclusive and accessible.”

First Art marketing and audience development manager Kate Learmouth said: “Access is something we’re very passionate about and are trying to embed as much as we can across everything we do. We’d love to see access provision rolled out across more events.”

A round-up of access provisions and links to online resources is at https://firstart.org.uk/tfs2024/access or by following links at www.thefullshebang.co.uk

The festival is funded by Arts Council England with support from Without Walls and Mansfield District Council.