Dina Bassile is a big music fan who loves hitting festivals and live gigs. But, as a person with disability, she has often found entertainment spaces inaccessible for wheelchair users. Today Bassile presides over an innovative Australian company, Tibi Access, offering event access consultancy to the music and arts industries. In fact, she is working as an access consultant for BIGSOUND. Bassile will also join a panel, Everyone Deserves Music, alongside (among others) Zack Alcott, who co-founded Melbourne's "all-inclusive" Ability Fest with his Paralympian brother Dylan, and Susan Emerson, from Auslan Stage Left.
She had the idea to start Tibi (meaning "for you" in Latin) while undertaking a BA in Entertainment Business Management at JMC Academy. "I did that course wanting to be an artist manager," Bassile says. "But I didn't really enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I was sort of lost as to where to go. I was speaking to one of my lecturers and she said to me that there are plenty of managers out there, and [plenty of] booking agents out there, but, if you wanna push yourself in the industry and be successful too, you need to find your niche. It was kinda just like a lightbulb moment for me at that point, because I am in a wheelchair myself and I go to festivals a lot and I experience firsthand the struggles with accessibility within the music industry."
Bassile introduced Tibi in early 2018. She relocated to Melbourne in january this year. She has welcomed the response to Tibi from an industry committed to greater inclusion. "My services include obviously access consulting for venues and music festivals and events of all types, and then I also run workshops, which has just been launched this year," she explains. "Those workshops are aimed towards industry professionals as well as artists. I just cover what can be done in all aspects of the industry, as well as theatre, to become more accessible and what can be done by festivals and venues – because I find that it's not that people don't want to make themselves accessible, it's a lack of education and not really knowing what to do. I also do some disability inclusion and awareness training in those workshops. That's part of my business and what my business offers."
Bassile has had positive feedback from members of the disabled community. "Everyone's been really supportive and really excited by having something like Tibi, because it's disability-led and disability-run by myself."
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Bassile is keen to challenge any misconceptions that ensuring festivals are accessible is difficult or expensive. "I think people who run festivals aren't aware that there are little things, and cost-effective things, that can be done," she stresses. "Simply by having information online, as to whether Auslan interpreters are available at the event or if there are disabled toilets at a venue really helps someone with a disability know whether they can attend or not. And then having an access liaison to contact is really helpful too."
Though many festivals do employ access liaison personnel, these tend to be occupational therapists who consider logistics, not experiential inclusivity. "A viewing platform will be positioned at the back of a venue, or at the side of a venue, just to say that they have one. It's not necessarily a really great spot of viewing and it's not inclusive." Bassile can herself test venues for mobility.
Ironically, Bassile has been too busy to attend gigs over winter. (Even following BIGSOUND, she's hosting a Brisbane workshop.) "The last gig I went to? It's been a while! I went to the Teskey Brothers at Northcote Social Club – that was probably three or four months ago. That was a really great event there. The staff are more than accommodating. The venue itself is really nice and easy to get in and out of. I think Northcote Social Club itself is really forward-thinking and wanting to make their venue as accessible as possible. I had someone representing Northcote Social Club at one of my workshops as well, so they're taking that initiative to be more accessible too, which is really great."
