Our safety, comfort and complexity scores each answer one narrow question. This page covers two more: who a festival suits, and what is physically on site.
Experience level
A festival can score well on safety and still be a poor place to start. Somewhere remote, demanding and self-sufficient might be superbly run and still overwhelming as a first outing. That is a different question from whether it's safe, and it deserves its own answer.
So every festival can carry one of three levels.
Beginner friendly
A good first festival. Short walking distances, real facilities, straightforward to reach and straightforward to leave. Usually this means no camping, or camping close to the car, near a town, with hotels an option.
What we look for: is the site easy to navigate on day one? Can you leave if you need to? Are there working toilets and showers or a bed within reach? Is the schedule readable without insider knowledge?
Intermediate
Assumes you've done one before. Camping is likely, some planning is required, and the site takes a day to learn. You'll want a checklist and you'll be glad you brought things you wouldn't have thought of the first time.
What we look for: multi-day camping, meaningful distances between areas, a site layout that rewards familiarity, some self-sufficiency around food, water and weather.
Seasoned
For people who know what they're doing. Remote access, real self-sufficiency, conditions that punish poor preparation. These are often the most rewarding festivals there are, and the reason the effort filters who turns up.
What we look for: long or difficult travel, limited resupply, terrain and weather that demand proper gear, and an expectation that you look after yourself and the people around you.
How the level relates to our other scores
It doesn't map neatly onto any of them, and that's the point.
- A festival can be Seasoned and score 5 for safety. Demanding is not the same as dangerous.
- A festival can be Beginner friendly and score low for comfort — a hot, dusty city festival is easy to attend and still uncomfortable.
- Complexity measures how much work it takes to get there. Level measures how much experience it helps to have.
If you're planning a first festival, sort by Beginner friendly and read the comfort score. Those two together tell you most of what you need.
What's on site
The amenities list is a plain inventory of provision, in three groups.
Access provision
Accessible toilets, raised viewing platforms, accessible camping and parking, companion or personal assistant tickets, step-free routes, powerchair charging, accessible shuttles, sign language interpretation, captioning, hearing loops, vibrating vests, quiet spaces, audio description, tactile or large-print maps, sighted guide schemes, guide dog policy, and whether there is a named access contact.
These sit alongside our three accessibility scores rather than replacing them. The scores are a judgement; this is a checklist. Both are useful and they answer different questions — a festival might have accessible toilets and still be very hard to get around.
Safety and welfare
On-site medical and whether it runs 24 hours, drug checking, a sanctuary or welfare space, naloxone availability, an amnesty policy, a stated anti-harassment policy, free drinking water, shade structures, and a lost friends point.
Facilities
Showers, flush toilets, phone charging, cashless payment, lockers, ATMs, food variety, vegan options, a family area, glamping, public wifi and shuttle services.
The most important thing on this page
An unticked box means we don't know. It does not mean the festival lacks it.
We tick only what we can confirm from published information or first-hand experience. A short list often means a festival publishes very little, not that the site is bare. If something matters to you — and if you are disabled, several things on that list may be the difference between going and not going — confirm it directly with the organiser before you book anything.
Limitations
Provision changes between editions. Contractors change, budgets move, and access teams are frequently the first thing cut when a festival is under financial pressure. Everything here reflects the most recent edition we have information for, and the review date is shown on every festival page.
Tell us when we're wrong
If you attended and the list here doesn't match what you found — in either direction — please tell us. First-hand reports carry more weight than a festival's own published information, particularly on access provision.
Organisers: if we've missed something you provide, send documentation and we'll update the page and note the date it changed.
Last updated 2026-09-28.