Gig Buddies Aids People With Disability To Go To Shows

The City of Sydney has offered $20,000 to sponsor Assisted Community Living (ACL)'s Gig Buddies initiative, a pilot program which pairs people with and without a learning disability to attend live music, cultural and performance events together. 

Developed in conjunction with the UK charity Stay Up Late, ACL aims to showcase the program's "viability" and to "promote and generate interest in the service within disability and live music communities and refine rollout procedures and policies". 

Lord Mayor Clover Moore says, "People with disability make a great contribution to our city, so it’s important that our policies and facilities promote inclusion.

"Inclusion and opportunity are two of the most basic fundamental rights, and everyone deserves the chance to have access to services, facilities and events. It is great that the Gig Buddies program will be inclusive to all people, no matter their level of ability."

Gig Buddies is also supported by the City of Sydney's Inclusion (Disability) Action Plan 2014-2017 and Live Music and Performance Action Plan, which promote the participation of people with a disability as audience members and artists.