Site

• What is the festival terrain like?
• How far is it from the car park to the camping area?

Facilites

• Is there power for charging electric/power-assisted wheelchair batteries?
• Are there accessible toilets?
• Do you provide chairs for your events?
• Is there a place where I can refrigerate my medication?
• Other helpful information

We are focused on making Buddhafield as accessible as possible and value feedback and suggestions. We have made a lot of changes for 2027 so please read carefully, even if you are a regular with us. 

We recognise that disabilities come in a wide range of forms, including mobility needs, sensory needs, mental health, neurodiversity and many, many others. Many disabilities are invisible and fluctuate. We strongly encourage those who feel that their disability may make it difficult for them to attend, to get in touch to discuss this. We will try to support as many needs as possible in whatever ways are practical.

Many of the common questions are answered below. However, please do get in touch if you have any other questions.

Do I need the accessible registration form?

The accessible registration form is used to book any or all of the following things:

• Accessible area camping - no drop off required
• Accessible area camping - drop off pass required
• Accessible area vehicle - car or live-in
• Essential companion ticket
• Disabled live in - sited in general area
• Disabled car pass - sited in general car park
• Registered Guide Dog

Click on the form link below the next question for more detailed descriptions of the above.

Once you have successfully registered for one or more of the above, you will be sent a link to pay for your whole booking - including additional adults, children and the services.

Who can book accessible camping? 

You can book the accessible area if you have one of the following proofs of eligibility dated within the last 24 months:

• PIP
• Blue Badge
• Access Card
• DLA
• or a doctor's note for non-permanent conditions or exceptional circumstances.

We may also accept evidence of one of these things being ‘in process’ as we know they can take a long time.

Unfortunately, due to rising pressure on the service in recent years, we can no longer accept self-identified need for this area nor bookings from people who are friends of people who need the area. We can accommodate eligible folk, their immediate families and carers. If you want to camp with a larger party, this will need to be in one of our standard areas - support is still available at the festival so read on to find out more about what's possible.

Also, once the area is fully booked, we won't be able to accommodate anyone who arrives on site without being booked.

These changes have been introduced to ensure that we can provide space and a high-quality service to everyone who books with us. We have made that number as high as we can whilst still meeting the standards that we want to offer people.

How do I book accessible camping?

Click the link below to book. 

You do not need to buy your festival tickets at this stage. If you meet the criteria above, and the booking is still open, then we have enoough space and tickets to accommodate you.

If you are unsure, please email accessibility@buddhafield.com - this inbox is only lightly monitored in the winter so please be patient when waiting for a response.

Do you offer free parking for Blue Badge holders?

Yes, we do. Please fill out the accessible registration form and you will be sent a link to book all of your tickets including your free parking pass. On the form, you will be asked to select a different option if you need to camp or park in the accessible area. A blue badge parking pass alone will be free but will only give you access to the general car park and/or live in area. 

This might happen for one of these reasons: 

• Using your vehicle to get to site is your only accessibility need and, once here, you do not need accessible camping. 
• The accessible area is full and you have decided to come to the event anyway, even without access to the area. 

Do you offer carer/PA tickets?

Yes, we do. To be eligbile for a carer/PA ticket you will need to provide one of the following:

• PIP/DLA Letters: A copy of your Personal Independence Payment or Disability Living Allowance letter showing a middle or higher rate of care or mobility components.
• Attendance Allowance: A copy of the award letter.
• Blind/Deaf Registration: Evidence that you are registered as severely sight impaired or deaf.
• Medical Letter: A recent letter from a GP, consultant, or specialist stating clearly that you cannot safely navigate the festival alone.

An essential companion is expected to support you with camping and access needs throughout the festival, including setting up your camp.

Please use this form to apply for your essential companion ticket. Once your registration is successfully processed, you will be sent a link to pay for your whole booking, including any additional adults, children, vehicles etc.

I need to camp in a quiet area - is this possible?

Although there is nowhere on site that is entirely noise- or activity-free, stewards can point you toward areas that are further away from noise or likely to be less densely populated with people during the event.

Can I bring a support animal?

Please do not bring dogs, cats or other animals. We will ask you to leave with them.

Registered assistance dogs are permitted. Please use this form to apply for your registered assistance dog pass.

Once your registration is successfully processed, you will be sent a link to pay for your whole booking, including any additional adults, children, vehicles etc.

Please note that this ONLY applies to registered assistance dogs. Regretfully, this does not currently legally include emotional support animals, even if they are medically recommended. Whilst we appreciate that there is an accessibility issue here, there is no current standard that dogs are trained and held to in order to be an ESA, and so we cannot have a reasonable assumption that they will be able to navigate the festival environment; therefore, we cannot meet our health and safety obligations and the terms of our license.

Will there be someone available to help with my setup?

Yes – if you need help with putting up your tent in the main camping area, one of the stewards can help you find a team member to support that. 

If you have a place in accessible camping and need help to set up there, the team can help. Please note that whilst we are willing to do everything we can to help, we cannot ask people to lift very heavy things so please bear this in mind when packing. We also cannot help with whole camp set ups - the team will set up tents and beds. Everything else will need to be set-up within your party, by a support person or self-managed. 

Is sign language provided for talks?

We don’t offer signing for talks or workshops, nor a festival programme for the hard of seeing, but please contact us to ask about particular assistance we can offer; if we know in advance, we can plan to help you. Once you’re on-site, ask at the Info Point for any specific help, and we’ll do our best to accommodate you.

Are there any quiet spaces within the event space?

There are no areas that are entirely noise-free or that we can guarantee will be people-free. However, we hold a quiet lounge space at our info point tent that you are welcome to visit at any time during their opening hours, which are published in the festival programme. You can also go to welfare, where they have comfortable couches, weighted blankets and blackout eye masks and a team to support people. For outdoor space, you may like to make your way to the woodland glade area, which is often less crowded and has hammocks in the trees where you can take some time out.

Can I see the event spaces and/or timetable beforehand to help me prepare to be on-site?

While the festival site does change from year to year, many things stay the same. You can see pictures of the festival site and some areas here. The festival programme will be published online before the event and available on the event page from around the beginning of June. To be notified when it comes out, please sign up for our newsletter or socials - links for these are above.

Please note that the programme only contains some of the timings for events at the festival. This is because there are usually changes right up until the start, and so it's not possible to confirm these before the programme print deadline. However, these are generally available once the event has started, and you can see times for the current day's and the next day's events on our information boards.

The info tent will also be able to help with days beyond that. There is a large print version of the programme available at the info point. 

What is the festival terrain like?

The Festival is distributed across four fields, gently sloping on both sides of a valley.

Most tracks have a slope, tend to be uneven and gravelly. In very bad weather, the paths between the lower arena fields (Rings and Owl) into the Long Field will be challenging for wheelchairs; entrances in and out of all fields get muddy after persistent rain. People do use powered mobility aids around the site, but please check your specific model is suitable, and off-road models are advisable. Some companies hire electric mobility aids that may be suitable for festival use.

For safety reasons, we are unable to allow free passage of cars between fields for any reason, so please do not consider a motor vehicle bigger than a motorised chair as a viable mode of transit around the site.

How far is it from the car park to the camping area?

It’s around a ten-minute walk to the main camping field. The terrain is primarily flat, with slopes in between the fields. There is a hardcore trackway running through the site.

Is there power for charging electric/power-assisted wheelchair batteries?

Unfortunately, as we are off-grid, we cannot offer charging for electric wheelchairs. If you check with the wheelchair provider or your local mobility support, sometimes they can recommend places in different areas of the country where wheelchair batteries can be charged.

Are there accessible toilets?

Yes - there are three sets of accessible toilets on site - one in the main camping field, on in the event site and one near accessible camping. We don’t have wheelchair-accessible showers - but this is an aspiration for the future. Please bring your radar key with you in order to access the toilets. 

Do you provide chairs for your events?

We try to supply different seating options in our mediation areas and workshops. However, we cannot promise that we will have suitable chairs for everyone, so it's best to bring your own, if possible.

Is there a place where I can refrigerate my medication?

We have no refrigeration facilities at any of our sites.

Other helpful information

We recognise that neurodiversity takes many forms and that individual needs can vary. We are unlikely to meet all of these in an FAQ like this. Please contact us if you want to discuss anything you might need.

In the meantime, we will keep adding information below as people continue to tell us about things that they would have found it helpful to know in advance before attending our event for the first time:

• The layout of the festival can change from year to year. We publish a map in the programme which shows the broad strokes and areas, but if there is something you would particularly like to check on before the event, please get in touch.
• Many of our workshops and events happen at the same time. While we try to be sensitive about very loud noises in the vicinity of our workshop and talk areas, some crossover of noise does happen and can be distracting.
• The programme board is usually very busy with information. If you find this overwhelming, please visit the info point where you can talk to someone about the kind of events you want to go to, and they can help you find times and other information.