Jericho Beach and the field of dreams - Part 2

                                                             THE FIELD IS HILLY

THE FIELD IS GRASSY

USUALLY IT'S DUSTY

THIS YEAR WAS MUDDY

BUT THERE'S A COMMITTEE

THAT'S THERE TO HELP ME

THEY KNOW THIS LAND IS MADE FOR YOU AND ME.

SUNG TO THE TUNE OF THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND THIS LAND IS MY LAND

 

The last blog post was a look at the perimeter paths around the large grass field, marsh land and beach in Jericho Beach Park. This post looks at the inner field which is usually very inaccessible. That's why I refer to it  as the field of dreams. In mid July each year tens of thousands of people flock to the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, among them hundreds of us using wheelchairs, canes, walkers, service animals, attendants, and the like. Add in another 1500+ volunteers, hundreds of musicians, sound crews , and merchants, and just for fun  this year stir in what seemed like endless litres of rainwater. How do you make what in any other situation would most assuredly be a disaster for PWDs to, as one patron put it, "the most accessible event of the year"?  Since it's a folk festival how else but by committee. I had the pleasure of joining the committee this year in making the festival barrier free.

Well marked viewing areas

The Universal Access Committee has been a part of the folk festival for a long time. It was formerly the disabled access committee, and this year's name change reflects the committee's wish that one day accessibility will be such a part of our culture that the committee will no longer need to exist. It's safe to say the committee will be around for awhile yet. Some people in the core group have been doing this for as for as long as 15 years.

Nomadic caravan

This experienced group thinks of everything: drop off areas, disability parking, attendant fee policy, a policy of self identifying as a PWD, wheelchair and umbrella loans, Braille and large print programs, a tent with a privacy room, well marked viewing areas, assistants to wheel you from stage to stage or provide your attendant with a break, a place to recharge your wheelchair, lots of way finding maps, and plenty of accessible washrooms. At the end of the day they have people to assist you on to public transit and they influenced transit to add more buses during these peak times. Not content to rest on their laurels, the committee's brain trust was surveying attendees this year and welcomed all suggestions.

Shade and rain tents

Excuse me! Coming through! Pardon me! None of these are necessary thanks

to the work of committee volunteers.

The universal access committee is involved in all areas of the festival

To paraphrase Joni Mitchell, when you get a large group of people in one place, some people behave like folks and some people behave like tourists. The folks know who they are but the tourists have no idea. In this case the folks respected the viewing area access, and accessible washrooms. The tourists not so much . But the dedicated volunteers of the universal access committee were there to convert tourists to folks with polite reminders and information on why it is necessary to respect access areas. On one of my shifts I was guarding the washrooms and an able bodied fellow, after listening to my shift partner's patient explanations on how not to be a tourist (I am sure she was more polite than that) decided he was going to use the accessible was"hroom anyway.  I yelled "bad karma"!, and he looked as surprised to hear it as I was to say it. What?" he asked.  Bad karma I repeated. He must have been a real "My Name is Earl" fan because it stopped him.  He mumbled something as he walked off.  Later in the shift I found a water canteen on the ground. Thinking nothing of it, I put it aside to add to the lost and found. Not long after the same guy came back this time searching the ground as he walked. "Looking for a water bottle?" I asked.  "Yes," he said. Grinning I handed it to him and said "good karma".  He nodded, thanked me and went on his way.

A folk market along the beach

I would love to work with this group again next year. The volunteers and committee heads are a great group of people. If that's not enough they also feed you, give you a weekend all access pass, a program and a party.  For more information on the festival, including where you can sign up to volunteer for the 35th year, or to recieve updates and more information go to www.thefestival.bc.ca.

If you want information on Jericho Beach be sure to look at Part 1 of this post and to www.vancouverparks.ca.

See you at the festival next year