If you look at the ticket prices for Pink’s concert at the Strawberry arena in Stockholm, a clear difference emerges. The lowest ticket price is SEK 575, but for a wheelchair seat the price is at least SEK 1,250. The wheelchair space includes an attendant.
According to the organizer, you may not buy a ticket in a standing room and enter with a wheelchair.
– It is offensive and strange, says Nicklas Mårtensson, chairman of Funktionsrätt Sweden.
The Association for Disabled Children and Young People (RBU) is also reacting.
– I think it’s completely crazy actually and something the organizer should look into, says chairman Johan Klinthammar and elaborates:
– As healthy, if you can put it clumsily, you can choose whether you want to pay a lot or less and maybe get a standing place. When you don’t have the alternative, you shouldn’t be punished by having to pay more, he says.
Johan Klinthammar thinks that Pink should be made aware of the difference.
– I guess she wouldn’t be particularly happy, he says.
“Decisive for whether you can walk”
Both Funktionsrätt Sverige and RBU say that many (but not all) with wheelchairs have a reduced ability to work and therefore often poorer finances. In addition, you may have additional costs due to your disability.
– Then the price difference can be decisive for whether you can actually afford to go or not, says Johan Klinthammar.
Nicklas Mårtensson, chairman of Funktionsrätt Sweden, thinks it is also wrong to have a special section for people with wheelchairs. He believes that it should be possible to enter the normal standing room.
– We don’t want it to be a segregation, that “you can stay there”. You should be able to have access to different places, and that applies to all parts of our society.
Live nation: ”Tar till oss”
Kulturnyheterna has sought an interview with the organizer Live nation. In an email, press officer Lisa Sandberg writes that the price is due to the wheelchair spaces being in a better section: “From a safety perspective, it is unfortunately not possible to place the wheelchair spaces in a standing area”.
Funktionsrätt Sweden, however, believes that the safety requirements should apply throughout the premises as there are many others with limited mobility such as the elderly, sick and pregnant.
Live nation also writes in an email that the issue is important and that they will take the criticism to heart for upcoming events.
