Inclusion Festival, the nation’s first and only sensory-friendly music and wellness festival designed to accommodate and include people of all abilities, will take place entirely online from August 21-23, 2020.

As with most music festivals in a pandemic world, Inclusion Festival 2020 will take place entirely online.

Inclusion Festival is put on by Accessible Festivals, an organization “dedicated to making live music and recreational events fully accessible for people of all abilities.” Despite having to make the move to an online-only event, accessibility will still be a main focus in 2020.  Accessibility practices will include continuous closed captioning, American Sign Language Interpretation, and accessibility tools embedded on the streaming site.

According to Inclusion Festival founder Amy Pinder, the goal of Inclusion Festival 2020 is “to bring together people of diverse abilities and experiences and help them find common ground through moments of joy and connections that only music can provide.”  Pinder says, “We believe that music is a universal language— When people are able to experience the joy of live music together, it’s really unifying.”

We couldn’t agree more.  Music unites in a way that nothing else can, and Inclusion Festival strives to ensure that no one is left out from that common experience. 

“This is a really unique and different opportunity,” founder Amy Pinder continues.  “Moving to an online platform allows us to think much more globally and to have participants from different parts of the country (and even the world) that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to access. Online accessibility is really important— we are having our entire event presented with closed caption and ASL (American Sign Language). We’re really excited about accessibility features! You can set profiles for different site access pertaining to different disability types— the entire site can be read aloud for blind participants as well.”

Inclusion Festival 2020 will truly be a “Music For All” experience.  As it should be.  And with this lineup of artists, we’re grateful that no one has to miss out on the party.

The event will feature people of all abilities in addition to world-renowned musicians in the jam scene. In the spirit of inclusion, Matt Butler will conduct ​Everyone Orchestra ​with participants ​Al Schnier (moe.), Aron Magner (The Disco Biscuits), James Casey and Jennifer Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band), Brandon “Taz” Niederauer, Bridget Law, Kai Eckhardt (Garaj Mahal) ​and ​Weedie Braimah.

A very special performance from ​Paul Hoffman (Greensky Bluegrass) will include collaborators ​Holly Bowling, Lindsay Lou, and Jay Cobb Anderson (Fruition). New sets will be aired from ​Hayley Jane, Zach Gill (ALO) TIKYRA (Southern Avenue), Peck and Penn (Midnight North), Karina Rykman, Tash Neal (London Souls)​, and many more!

Inclusion Festival 2020 will also offer a wide variety of workshops and diverse conversations, including an interview with award-winning author and autism advocate ​Dr. Temple Grandin​, and live nightly dance parties. Viewers can log into Zoom Rooms to participate and connect from home, in addition to joining in on CashorTrade Streams.  (More info at Inclusion Festival website)

All donations received from the livestream event will directly benefit the non-profit organization Accessible Festivals​, dedicated to ensuring that music and recreation are accessible to all people, in addition to supporting the participating musicians and presenters.

“We hope this festival sends a message to other producers and promoters navigating this new normal,” Amy Pinder concludes,  “and we hope to show them what they can do if they provide accessibility features. We hope to be a model to inspire larger entities in the industry so that they can know what prioritizing accessibility could look like.”  

Thank you, Inclusion Festival, for helping to bring music to ALL!

More info about Inclusion Festival 2020