Annual Review2011 – 2012

improving deaf and disabled people’s access to live music

In 2011/12, Attitude is Everything became one of the Arts Council’s National Portfolio Organisations (NPO). We were awarded an increase because of the strength of our partnership work and vision of improving Deaf and disabled people’s access to live music.

Arts Council would have an excellent strategic organisation in Attitude is Everything; its track record, vision and commitment for inclusion of Deaf and disabled people in mainstream arts opportunities warrants support for this unique, specialised, disabled-led organisation…

From our Arts Council England NPO application assessment.

This was the first year of the implementation of our Strategic Plan 2011 – 2015 and I am delighted to say that it was extremely successful, with the organisation exceeding the majority of its targets, despite 11% funding cuts across all projects.

I thank Arts Council England and in particular, our Relationship Manager, Milica Robson, for their strong belief in, and continued commitment to Attitude is Everything.

In addition I am grateful to all our donors and sponsors, but in particular, Glastonbury Festival and Festival Republic for their donations. The continued support from Michael Eavis and Melvin Benn is not only financially beneficial but also assists Attitude is Everything to be recognised by other live music organisations as the leading experts in access issues. In addition to what Festival Republic donates to us, this year, Melvin also agreed to fund an additional Access and Training bursary for UK Festival Awards winner in the Best Grassroots Festival category – this went to YNot? Festival. They have also signed up to Attitude’s Charter of Best Practice.

One of our Trustees, Parker-Jayne Isibor, completed a Fundraising Bike Ride in September 2011 and our Patrons Drugstore raised funds through the Pledge Campaign for the recording of their album ‘Anatomy’. Thanks to everyone who donated to both fundraising campaigns.

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Chair’s Review

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I would also like to thank the family and friends of Bob Hamilton who donated to us in memory of Bob. He was a fabulous volunteer and very much missed by the staff and volunteer team.

Matthew Hancock MP really championed Attitude is Everything this year. Matthew and his Parliamentary Team not only supported us to launch our State of Access Report in the Attlee Suite at the House of Commons in December 2011, but also lent further support by debating the subject of access for Deaf and disabled people to live music in the UK in the House of Commons, with the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries Ed Vaizey in January 2012. I am immensely proud of how the Minister regards us:

…The reason I describe (Attitude is Everything) as a stand-out charity is that its attitude is entirely right. It is an attitude of encouragement, rather than lambasting, and of providing solutions, rather than simply highlighting problems ...

My sincere thanks go to Matthew Hancock MP for his support to us in 2011/12; for raising the profile of Attitude is Everything and the State of Access Report, and for an immensely successful and enjoyable launch which was attended by many of our funders, supporters and partners in the arts and music industry.

The continuing debate on access to live music and whether access will eventually become a condition of licence gives Attitude is Everything an important profile in Parliament; Parliament is also where the voices of Deaf and disabled music-lovers need to heard.

Five Trustees resigned from the Board during the year, and I want to take this opportunity to thank all of them for their work with us. At the same time, I am immensely grateful to the remaining Trustees for their continued support in maintaining the strategic direction of the organisation. They all bring considerable and invaluable experience in governance. We are currently working to develop our Board of Trustees and I feel confident that by the end of the next financial year, we will have a full Board.

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I would also like to thank the rest of our Patrons for their continued support; also the Steering Group and Subcommittee members, office volunteers, Mystery Shoppers, Information Tent workers and stewards who devote many hours of their free time to us.

Our freelancer Web Editor Fred Williams also retired after more than 20 years service working for both Attitude is Everything and our former host organisation, Artsline. His loyalty and dedication to us has been admirable.

Finally, we would not have Attitude is Everything without the staff; once again this dedicated and passionate team have exceeded many goals during 2011 /12 and they are invaluable as ever.

Stephen Reid, Chair

Stephen Reid

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Achievements in 2011 - 2012Despite the 11% decrease in funding that all Arts Council Organisations received in 2011/12, we exceeded most of the targets set for us by our main funder, Arts Council England and assisted 273 organisations and had audiences of 800 for Club Attitude events this year.

We also worked all-year round on specific media projects with a dedicated PR Company. Working with Name PR has significantly enhanced our profile in the mainstream and trade press.

Our key programme strands were:

Charter of Best PracticeOur groundbreaking Charter of Best Practice increased the number of Charter Venues and Festivals to 55 from 42 last year. Our existing Charter Venues and Festivals continued to make a commitment to reach the Bronze, Silver and Gold benchmarks of achievement set out for each stage of the award, whilst we provided full support and training to each venue through every stage. Through the Charter we are creating a network of more accessible venues and festivals which will enhance the quality of the experience for Deaf and disabled audiences and artists.

For more detail and to see who is signed up to our Charter of Best Practice, please click here:

www.attitudeiseverything.org.uk/the-charter-of-best-practice

Mystery ShoppingRemaining at the heart of Attitude is Everything’s Vision and Values, the number of our volunteer disabled and Deaf clubbers and gig-goers expanded, and they continued to provide feedback on the accessibility and overall experience at not only the Charter Venues and Festivals, but also local music venues, clubs and festivals of their choice.

126 feedback reports were completed during 2011/12.

Our biggest success to date for the Mystery Shopping Project was the creation of our first State of Access Report. There is more information on this in the Lobbying Section of the Review.

Spaceships Are Cool

with the Charter of Best Practice

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Disability Equality Training Specific Disability Equality Training modules based on each level of the Charter were developed on key topics such as making Outdoor Events accessible; and “open” sessions were made available for venues and festivals who only wish to train a small number of staff.

In total we trained 567 people over 26 sessions for venues, festivals and organisations including HMV Hammersmith Apollo, HMV Birmingham Institute, HMV Edinburgh Picture House, Silverstone Events Team, Greenbelt and the Royal Parks Events Team.

For the CREATE Young Hackney project, we provided a training session for young people between 14 and 19 years old, on making festivals accessible and we offered two volunteer placements to young students at our Club Attitude event at Village Underground. Volunteers observed a Disability Awareness training session and learned how we put on an accessible event. It is the first time that we have trained young people specifically on access issues. This was in preparation for a bigger partnership project that we hope to embark upon with the National Skills Academy from 12/13 onwards.

Access AuditsWe completed 2 Access Audits and used our previous Access Auditing work to create online Case studies that give partners a better understanding of the end product of an Access Audit, and the impact it can have, on an organisation and its Deaf and disabled Customers.

Club AttitudeClub Attitude nights continue to showcase the talents of disabled and non-disabled musicians and DJ's, and to promote best practice by demonstrating to the industry how to put on a fully accessible club night.

Glastonbury Showcase:300 audience members attended the Glastonbury Showcase event, which was made possible by support from Continental Drifts. Band of Holy Joy headlined; Heavy Load and Captain Angelo played alongside DJ’s Deaf Rave, DJ Void and Stella OBE.

Club Attitude at Village Underground:This was hugely successful and sold out, with 500 people at the venue on the night.

Our high profile headliners were Slow Club who played on the bill with Spaceships Are Cool and Wildeflower alongside DJ’s

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Ghostpoet, Stella Mortos and Pigpen. We also asked Pigpen to produce one of their comic strip features about our event and Eat Your Own Ears assisted us to market the night using their exclusive mailing list. We worked with a new partner, ticket agency We Got Tickets who featured us as their chosen charity event and enabled us to collect donations on top of ticket payments online.

Additionally, a Radio 1 programme documentary called “Let Me Into the Music” about Deaf and disabled people’s access to live music, hosted by Nihal, chose to focus on our event and it aired to great acclaim in May 2012.

Festivals46 people took part in the Deaf and Disabled People’s Stewarding project, and we ran 6 Information Tents and/or Stewarding Projects at Glastonbury, Latitude, The Big Chill, Reading / Leeds and Liberty Festivals, in partnership with Festival Republic, Glastonbury Festivals, Oxfam and SFM Security Consultants. This project continued to create volunteer and employment opportunities for Deaf and disabled people at major music festivals in the UK. It also ensured that Attitude is Everything had a greater presence at festivals as well as providing support and reassurance for Deaf and disabled customers on-site.

For the 9th year running we were on the Advisory Board of Liberty Festival, and amongst other tasks, advised on the music programme, and made sure the transition from the Trafalgar Square site to the new site at Southbank Centre / National Theatre was as smooth as possible.

Victoria ParkOur work continued with MAMA Group and Loud Sound on improving access to Lovebox, High Voltage, Field Day, Underage, LED and Tiesto festivals, which included mystery shopping at each event and skill sharing sessions. We were able to set standards for ways in which local councils can engage with Festival Promoters and proactively push access issues to the forefront, work which will continue into 12/13, influencing the Cultural Olympiad Local Authority-funded events.

Cultural Olympiad:We gave specialist advice and training on making Cultural Olympiad events accessible to Essex County Council’s Spark’s Will Fly event, Woking Borough Council Festival, Dover Council Torch Ceremony Event and ISAN (Independent Street Arts Network) members.

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Accentuate’s Our View – Celebrate and Commission Project This continued during 2011/12 with StopGAP Dance Company and Blue Touch Paper Carnival.

LobbyingOur Strategic Plan 2011 – 2015 highlighted the need for us to become more involved with lobbying on specific issues within the music industry and its lack of access for Deaf and disabled people; to ensure that our impact can be even more widespread as our views become enshrined in law.

We have decided that our priority must be ensuring that access at live music events should be a condition of Entertainment Licence. We have been working carefully with a number of partners to ensure that we increase our potential for success.

Blue Touch Paper Carnival 2011

Richard West, Kristina Veasey &

CEO Suzanne BullBlue Touch Paper Carnival 2011

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State of Access Report and its launch at the House of Commons:Based on two years of research into over 100 music venues UK-wide, gathered from the Reports that our Mystery Shoppers produced, our State of Access Report was launched by Matthew Hancock MP at House of Commons reception.

Attitude is Everything’s State of Access Report represents the first piece of systematic research into access and inclusion within the music industry. It examines views and approaches to access across the industry and sets out recommendations to ensure that all venues follow best practice. In particular, it includes suggestions for an ‘Event Standard’ to which all venues should subscribe.

Matthew Hancock MP.

Please see the State of Access Report for more detailed information and its recommendations:

www.attitudeiseverything.org.uk/news/state-of-access-report

Debate in the House of Commons on improving access to live music:Following on from the launch of the State of Access Report, in January 2012, Matthew Hancock MP debated with Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, about disabled access at music venues and our recommendation for access to be a condition of license.

After this debate, we formed a collective of like-minded disability arts organisations, representatives from the music industry and supportive local authority officers, named ourselves “Beyond The Ramps” and met with Minister Ed Vaizey to discuss the recommendations from the State of Access Report.

Matthew Hancock MP

signing the Charter of Best Practice

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Councillor Roger Robinson, Beyond the Ramps member

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Volunteers In addition to the Mystery Shopping Project and the Deaf and Disabled People’s Stewarding project, we were able to offer two disabled volunteers office internships with us; one of our interns, Nina Muhlemann, assisted us in writing up the Case Studies and the analysis of statistical information for the State of Access Report.

All of our Mystery Shoppers are Deaf and disabled people themselves. Our team of 184 active Mystery Shoppers completed a total of 81 venue reports and 45 festival reports and are estimated to have volunteered 1,404 hours over the course of the year. Our Deaf and disabled stewarding project recruits our users to work at festivals such as Glastonbury, Latitude, Big Chill, Reading and Leeds. Between our volunteer stewards and information tent workers, we would estimate another 792 hours. In total this equates to 2,196 volunteer hours and over £13,351 of in-kind income not included in these accounts.

Our Staff, Trustees and PatronsYou can find a full list of Attitude is Everything Staff, Trustees and Patrons here:

www.attitudeiseverything.org.uk/about-us

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Volunteer Nina Muhlemann, Bob Pritchard & CEO Suzanne Bull

Attitude is Everything Staff and Volunteers, Big Chill 2011

Spaceships Are Cool

at Club Attitude, Village Underground

Our Staff and Trustees at the

State of Access Report Launch,

House of Commons Slow Club at Club Attitude,

Village Underground

2011 – 2012 In Pictures

Wildeflower at Club Attitude,

Village Underground11 12

Derek Garland, outgoing Vice Chair and his wife Maureen DJ Ghostpoet at Club Attitude,

Village Underground

Volunteer Steward Jamie

Forrester at Reading FestivalWildeflower with the Charter of Best Practice

DJ Ghostpoet with the Charter of Best Practice

Slow Club with the Charter of Best Practice

Volunteer Steward Genevene Hamilton at Reading Festival

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This summarised information is taken from the financial statements approved by the trustees and signed on their behalf on 4th December 2012.

The full Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 31st March 2012, which includes the financial statements and an unqualified report form our independent examiner, are available from Attitude is Everything on request.

How Attitude is Everything was funded in 2011/2012

How Attitude is Everything applied its 2011/2012 income

Financial Statements

Grants awarded 61%

Donations 17%

Income from charitable activities 12%

Other generated income 10%

Charitable activities 84%

Generating income 12%

Governance 4%

To reserves 0%

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Statement of Financial Activities Year to 31st March 2012

Income 2012 2011£ £

Voluntary income 134,031 144,733Incoming resources from Charitable Activities 22,006 25,074Other income 32,426 16,699Total incoming resources 188,463 186,506

Resources ExpendedCosts of Charitable Activities:

Attitude is Everything Charter 37,669 37,386'Mystery shopper' reports 19,395 21,238Disability Equality Training 21,256 16,584Access Audits 3,733 322Club Attitude 24,327 8,787Festivals 46,224 45,625Other Charitable Activities 16,071 8,254

168,675 138,196

Costs of generating funds 25,473 39,544Governance costs 7,448 8,000Total expenditure 201,596 185,740Net income for the year -13,133 766

Balance Sheet at 31st March 20122012 2011

£ £Fixed Assets 140 826Debtors and other current assets 22,005 18,539Cash at bank and in hand 44,726 62,523less: current liabilities 4,419 6,303Total Assets 62,452 75,585

Funds:Restricted funds: 0 0Unrestricted funds:

Designated fund 1,459 3,758Fixed Assets 140 826General fund 60,853 71,001

Total Funds: 62,452 75,585

All the Charter Venues and Festivals

All of our volunteer Mystery Shoppers, Stewards and Information Tent workers

All of the artists and BSL interpreters who have appeared at Club Attitude during 2011 and 2012

All of our families and friends who give up their time to support us

Access All Areas

Access Association

Access Events

AEG

Arts Council England – the Music Unit

Academy Music Group (AMG)

Accentuate Project

Age Concern Camden

Alan Kerr

Art Link Edinburgh

asbl Plain-Pied

Balfour Beatty

BASCA

BBC Ouch

BBC Radio 1 - Love Hackney

Beyond The Ramps – Action on Hearing Loss, Artsline, Councillor Roger Robinson, GAMA (Green Access and Mobility Area), HeartNSoul, ISAN (Independent Streets Arts Network), James Drury, Leonard Cheshire, MENCAP, Remi Harris, Shape,

Stay Up Late, UK Music, Stagetext, Tower Hamlets Arts and Events Team and Vocaleyes

Big Arts Day

Big Red Group

Birmingham Ballroom

Blackflag Warehouse

Blue Touch Paper Carnival

Bolton Enabling Events

British Council

Camden Disability Scrunity Panel

Chase Park Music Festival

Clear Voice Media

Continental Drifts and Global Local

Create Complete Collaborate

CREATE Young Hackney

Crying Out Loud

DaDafest

Deaf Men Dancing

Deaf Rave

Disability Arts Online

Drake Music

Drugstore

Eat Your Own Ears

Essex Council

Family and Friends of Robert (Bob) Hamilton

Festival Republic

Festival Spirit

Flash Musicals

Attitude is Everything would like to thank

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Football Licensing Authority

GAMA

GLA (Greater London Association) - London Events Forum

Glastonbury Festivals

Grae J. Wall

Greenwich and Docklands Festivals

Hands 4 U

Horsham Carnival

Interactive UK

ISAN

JC Promotions

Julie's Bicycle

"Krug" Cultural Organisation

Leeds City Council

Liberty Festival

Loud Sound

Luther Prendragon

MAMA Group

Matthew Hancock MP and his Parliamentary Team

MEN Arena

Musicians Union

Muskelsvindfonden

Name PR

National Skills Academy

National Union of Students (NUS)

Olympic Park Legacy

Oxfam

Oxford Inspires

PAPA Projects

Picnic Concerts

PigPen

Pledge Campaign

Resonance FM

Rewind Festival

Somers Town Arts Festival

Southwark Council Arts and Events Team

Stay Up Late Campaign

Steph Cutler

StopGAP Dance Company

T4 On the Beach

The National Skills Academy

Tower Hamlets Council Arts and Events Team

UK Festival Awards

Ulster University Student Union

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+44 (0) 207 383 7979

suzanne@attitudeiseverything.org.uk

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www.attitudeiseverything.org.uk Registered Company No. 1121975 Registered Charity No. 6397532

improving deaf and disabled people’s access to live music