'My heart broke in a gazillion pieces': Autistic woman left feeling overwhelmed and excluded due accessibility issues at EP

Avid music fan Kate Raftery at EP with her mother Michelle. Picture: Michelle Raftery

An autistic woman has said her "heart broke in a gazillion pieces" when she saw the main accessible platform at Electric Picnic was next to the toilets this year.

Kate Raftery felt “excluded” and she called on the organisers to meet people with disabilities before next year’s festival for better planning.

This was Kate’s second EP but she felt distressed instead of enjoying the music as freely as she did in 2025.

She said problems started last Friday when an official festival map showed an incorrect location for this platform.

When they tracked it down, she said: “We were between queues for the bar and the toilets. We couldn’t get in sometimes, people thought we were skipping the queues.

“My heart dropped, I was crying and my heart broke in a gazillion pieces.” 

In addition, it had two spotlights attached to light up pathways around the toilets, leaving Kate and others disorientated by the brightness.

One was switched off after people raised concerns but the area remained far brighter than usual, she added. 

She is a big music fan and regularly goes to gigs, saying: “The accessibility was so good last year (at EP), we were praising it to everyone. 

"You didn’t feel like you had a disability, you were part of the crowds.” 

This year she still managed to enjoy acts on the smaller stages especially Audrey Hobert, but was often so distressed from the main area she needed to take breaks instead. 

“I love music,” she said, adding she has emailed organisers Festival Republic about these issues.

Kate is considering setting up a committee to lobby for better accessibility at music gigs and festivals. 

Her mother Michelle was with her at EP. The pair run a popular Instagram account with almost 18,000 followers called @juzt2girls.

“It’s not fair that so many people were let down,” Michelle said.

“We’ve had hundreds of messages about it, we can’t get through the messages we’ve had.” 

They had prepared for weeks.  However instead of repeating last year’s success when they did a day-trip, she saw her daughter in a panic when they at first thought there was no accessible platform.

“We were asking staff where it was, no-one seemed to know where it was,” she recalled.

When we eventually found it, it was off the path between the bars and main arena, and near the toilets. It was bonkers.

“The smell from the toilets was awful."

Michelle felt it was in a much better location last year, and shared photos online showing the different set-ups.

She also pointed out, however, that the accessible campsite was “absolutely brilliant”, praising the staff who worked there for their assistance and support.

When Kate became too overwhelmed by distractions on the platform, they retreated to the small quiet camp-site for breaks.

They both noted how she needed so much time to decompress, they missed out on visiting other parts of the festival.

Michelle echoed her daughter's wish for more supports, saying: "We emailed Festival Republic, we'd love to have a sit down with them about this." 

Festival Republic were approached for comment.

Some of these issues were raised with director Melvin Benn at a press conference during the event.

He told reporters: “It’s a really good accessible place in my view, you get a good view of the stage. 

"I’m really not sure why people think it’s a poorer view.” 

He also said: “Where it was previously a huge, great delay tower was right in the middle of your view from between the disabled platform and the stage. 

"And I moved it so the delay tower isn’t in view anymore. You get a much clearer view of the stage.”