01
Ground and routes
The main avenues run firm, level and wide enough to pass in both directions. Where a park surface turns soft, matting goes down. Route lighting stays on from dusk to the last person out.
Festival · accessibility
Accessibility without asking twice.
Firm ground and level routes. Accessible toilets. A quiet room away from the speakers. Somewhere to sit every short stretch. A support person comes in free, a service animal goes wherever you go, and a volunteer works the site whose whole job is clearing what stands in your way.
Our plan for 7–8 August 2027 at LeBreton Flats, subject to permits
Read this as a promise we are building to.
The festival has never happened. Every line on this page is a commitment made in advance, in public, so that you can hold us to it and so that we have to budget for it. Where the answer depends on a permit or a supplier we have yet to sign, the page says which.
Written 28 August 2026 · reviewed every time a permit lands
Free entry is the first accessibility decision, and it is already made. Everyone comes in at the same price, which is none. A support person is charged nothing, and explaining a disability at a ticket window buys you nothing you did not already have.
The second decision is the quiet zone, and it is in the site plan from the start. Sensory sensitivity, autistic visitors, families with small children, elders, anyone who needs the volume to stop for ten minutes — one low-light, low-sound tent covers all of them, and it costs almost nothing to run.
Access · commitments 01–10 · owner: operations
What the ground owes you.
Ten commitments for the two days. Each one is budgeted, each one has a named owner in the operations plan, and each one is written here before it exists so that it cannot quietly disappear.
Planned · first edition 2027
02
Accessible toilets
Accessible units at every toilet block, on hard standing, with a level approach and light after dark. Placement goes on the site map in spring 2027, so you can plan a route before you arrive.
03
A support person comes in free
Entry is free for everyone, which settles the question outright. If we ever charge for anything on site, the price for a support person is published before the day, and where we require a support person, that price is nil.
04
Service animals
A service animal goes with you everywhere the public goes — the pavilions, the food streets, the stage viewing areas. Water bowls sit at the water points, and shade is part of the layout.
05
The quiet zone
One tent, sited away from the speakers, low light and low sound, seating inside, open both days with no booking and no explanation asked. It goes on the site map in the same pass as the toilets.
06
Somewhere to sit
Seating every short stretch along the main avenue and at every stage, in shade where the park gives us shade. A rest stop is the difference between staying two hours and staying six.
07
Sightlines at the stages
Every stage keeps a protected viewing area with room for wheelchairs, support persons and service animals, level with the ground and clear of the standing crowd.
08
Hearing and language
ASL interpretation on the main stage is in the budget as an intention. The moment it is contracted, this page names the stage and the hours. Printed material comes in large print and plain text on request.
09
Getting to the gate
Our planned venue has an O-Train station at its entrance — Pimisi, Line 1, named on the National Capital Commission venue page. A marked Para Transpo drop-off, accessible parking near the entrances and a separate accessible queue are on the operational checklist the City holds us to.
10
Help on the spot
Accessibility volunteers work the entrances and the field all day. Removing the barrier in front of you is the job description, and the training for it is a condition of the badge.
The rules we work to.
Ontario law and the City's event guide set a floor. We publish the floor so you know what you are entitled to ask for, from us and from any other festival in this province.
Statutory · Ontario
| Rule | What it means on the day |
|---|---|
| AODA · IASR s.7(1) | Accessibility training and Human Rights Code training for employees and volunteers alike, as soon as practicable, proportionate to what each person does. |
| AODA · Customer Service, Part IV.2 | A service animal and a support person are admitted. Where entry is charged, the support person's fee is announced in advance; where the organiser requires a support person, that fee is waived. Our entry is free, so both come to nil. |
| Ottawa Special Events Guide, Section 13 | An accessibility contact in every announcement. Barrier-free movement. A protected stage viewing area with room for support persons and service animals. Accessible parking at the entrances. Accessible toilets. A marked Para Transpo drop-off. A separate accessible queue. Lit paths. Quiet spaces. A named volunteer who clears accessibility barriers during the event. |
| Emergency plan | Evacuation of people with disabilities is written into the emergency plan and rehearsed with the corps before the gates open. |
Accessibility training reaches everyone who wears our badge — staff, coordinators, volunteers and pavilion crews alike. The accessibility volunteer's own course is a required step of registration, and the training log gets kept whether or not our headcount obliges us to keep one.
Training is a condition of the badge. Nobody works this festival without it.
When each answer lands.
Half of this page is waiting on a venue. Here is the order the answers arrive in, with the dates we are working to.
Every step ahead of today is marked planned
- October 2026Planned Event permit application to the NCC for LeBreton Flats Park The venue decides what the ground can promise. Filing early is how a first-year festival holds a date.
- 8 May 2027Planned Hard deadline for that application Ninety days ahead of a high-impact event. Miss it and the edition moves.
- Spring 2027Planned Site map published with routes, accessible toilets, the quiet zone and the Para Transpo drop-off marked Plan your route before you leave home.
- July 2027Planned Accessibility training for the whole corps Badges are issued against completed training.
- 7–8 August 2027Planned The gates open, free, both days Subject to permits.
Ask for what is missing.
This list came from law, from other festivals and from our own heads. Yours is the one that matters. Tell us what you need and we work out how to get it there.
Access requests · answered by a person
Write to hello@capitalcultures.com with Accessibility in the subject line, or use the form below. Ask early where you can — a ramp, an interpreter, a reserved space or a charging point all take lead time to arrange, and lead time is the whole difference between yes and sorry.
Questions people send us.
This list grows as the letters arrive. Send one that is missing and it lands here with the answer.
Access · frequently asked
Do I have to book the quiet zone?
Walk in. It stays open through both days, with no booking, no wristband and no explanation asked for.
Does my support person pay?
Entry is free for everyone, so no. If any part of the site is ever ticketed, the support person's price gets published before the day, and where we require a support person to be with you, that price is nil.
Where does Para Transpo drop off?
A marked drop-off zone at the entrance is on the checklist the City holds us to. The exact point goes on the site map in spring 2027, once the venue licence fixes the entrances.
Will there be ASL interpretation?
Main-stage interpretation sits in the budget as an intention. This page names the stage and the hours the day the contract is signed. If you need interpretation for a specific performance, tell us through the form and we will work to that.
Can I bring my own mobility scooter or wheelchair?
Yes, and the routes are laid out for it. Strollers, walkers, wheelchairs and scooters all travel the same firm avenues. Charging is one of the things worth asking about in advance so we can point you at a socket.
What if the venue changes?
This page changes the same week, and the changes are written in plain words, with the old line still visible in the history. Every ground-dependent promise on it is labelled as such today for exactly that reason.
The thing I need is nowhere on this page.
That is what the form is for. Send it to us and a coordinator writes back. Requests we cannot meet get an honest answer and a reason, in time for you to decide.
Where to go next.
Access runs through the whole site. These are the pages that carry the rest of it.
Festival · 06 of 07