York St John University academic works to transform the cultural experience of deaf festival goers 

Dr Dai O’Brien on BSL, inclusion, and creating unforgettable moments for the deaf community at Glastonbury   

Every summer, tens of thousands of people descend on Worthy Farm in Somerset for the Glastonbury Festival. The festival is known for being a celebration of music, politics and art. But beyond the headliners and viral moments, it’s also at the forefront of cultural inclusivity.  

DeafZone is an initiative championing access and equality for deaf festival goers, and at the centre of that work is Dr Dai O’Brien, Associate Professor of British Sign Language and Deaf Studies at York St John University. 

His mission isn’t about "helping deaf people enjoy music", rather about cultural exchange, equal access, and reshaping how festivals, and society more broadly, understand and celebrate deaf identities. 

How did you first get involved with the Glastonbury Festival? 

I first went to the Glastonbury Festival back in 2005 with Dr Paddy Ladd, and a few friends (one of whom I’m now married to!). Paddy went on to establish DeafZone and was awarded an honorary doctorate from York St John University in 2017. That first visit was really good fun, but I ended up relying on hearing friends a lot to access what was going on because there were no BSL interpreters. 

DeafZone was established in 2009, then after a few years Paddy asked me if I’d like to be involved, so I volunteered with them in a couple of different roles, including as BSL teacher. Then I was asked if I’d like to be involved in the coordinating team, and that’s what I do now. 

What will you be doing at Glastonbury this year? 

The underpinning philosophy of DeafZone is cultural exchange. We offer a chance for people who aren’t familiar with signed languages and deaf culture to come and learn more about our language, history, politics and culture. We believe that deaf and hearing, signing and non-signing people should be able to learn from each other, and we see our role as being able to facilitate this.  

We’re not about “helping the poor deaf people understand music”! We’re about making sure that there is a way for deaf and hearing people to meet each other’s cultures on an equal footing. 

What can festival goers expect at the DeafZone? 

At our stall, we provide free BSL classes over the course of the festival. We teach around 300 people every year, so since DeafZone was established, that’s several thousand who have had their first introduction to the visual spatial language of BSL in our classes. It’s also a place where people can come for information about deaf cultures, arts and history. That’s something that can be really life changing for people who have deaf people in their family, or for deaf children. Often they won’t have had the opportunity to meet so many deaf people in a single place, of such varied backgrounds so it can be a life changing experience for them.  

It’s also a social hub for deaf festival goers where they can come and relax, chat, meet old friends and make new ones. We’ve also worked with other areas of the festival to include deaf performers and volunteers in other roles.  

DeafZone also organises the on-site BSL interpreters, we cover about 570 hours of interpreting per year on 4 main stages and also offer a roaming interpreter service so deaf people can book interpreters for other performances and activities, such as in the Circus and Theatre tents, Green Field debates and workshops, and performances on other stages such as the Park Stage, Woodies, and so on. 

Were you a festival / gig goer prior to your work there?  

Live music has always been a big part of my life. While I can hear a bit, the best musical experiences for me are those which include tactile elements – being able to feel the music in my body. This could be from standing near the speaker stacks at live gigs and festivals, using balloons to pick up the vibrations in the air, or at home I have a backpack with sub-woofers installed in it which give me the tactile access I need to fully experience music.  

It’s a fallacy that music has to be experienced through the ears! The tactile and visual elements of live shows are at least as important as what you can hear for the experience.  

I think that’s a key message – deaf people experience music in a different way to hearing people. It’s not necessarily about using technology to make the sound louder, or interpreters to provide access to lyrics (although both can help), we have a qualitatively different experience of music. 

How much do you think interpretation like this enhances the experience? 

It’s important to remember that Glastonbury Festival is about FAR more than just music. There are all sorts of performances, lectures, debates, workshops, information about alternative politics and lifestyles, which are not accessible or not easily accessible without interpreters. That’s an important part of our work which is often overlooked because the spotlight is often on the Pyramid Stage interpreters.  

LeftField, which is run by Billy Bragg, has political debates and discussions all day every day, and those are interpreted into BSL. Maybe less showy than the headline acts on the big stage, but it’s a vital part of the Glastonbury experience that we get to access those elements of the festival. So yes, interpretation can really enhance the experience, but maybe not in the way that people expect. Access to the performances on the big stages is important for feeling part of the festival as well, having access to the between-song chat is great, but being able to feel part of the big moments is also really important for deaf festival goers. 

There’ve been several viral moments with sign language interpreters ‘stealing the show’ during sets from Stormzy and the Foo Fighters etc. Is this a positive thing for awareness of inclusivity at festivals? 

I think it’s a double-edged sword in some ways. People celebrate these moments without thinking about why the interpreters need to be there in the first place. Why is our society so unequal and inaccessible that deaf people are excluded every day? What happens to deaf people at all the other events and even just in everyday life where this level of access is not there? What happens to deaf kids who don’t have access to an easily understandable language from birth?  

Deaf people are pushed down the route of learning to speak and having to try and hear through technological interventions and the easy, obvious answer of learning signed languages is ignored or actively oppressed. It places deaf kids at huge risk of language deprivation with enormous consequences for their mental and emotional wellbeing, education, and ability to live a healthy life in the future. I would hope that people think about those things when they see interpreters going viral. But all too often, I think the reaction is too shallow. It’s just “oh, that looks cool!” and people hit like and share without thinking about these deeper issues. 

Do interpreters feel pressure to make it a big performance? 

Oh yeah. It’s important to remember that all of us are volunteers. We all give up our time and annual leave for free to go and do our work at the festival. But there’s an additional burden on the interpreters, who have to learn all the songs which the acts they’re covering might perform. There’s an enormous amount of extra work they do before and during the festival to prepare for that. It’s important to recognise that. That’s a huge challenge for people covering acts like Paul McCartney, Neil Young, people like that who have decades of material to draw from. There’s always a risk that they’ll throw in something unexpected and the interpreters have to react on the fly. It’s a really pressured environment for them with so many eyes on them, but they all do a wonderful job! 

What are you most looking forward to about the Glastonbury weekend? 

The unexpected! I don’t generally go to the festival with a “must see” list of acts anymore. Each year there’ll be a few things I’d like to see, so I try to catch them if I’m able to. But most often the really cool stuff is the stuff you don’t expect! Plus, of course, I love what DeafZone does at the festival.

We change people’s lives, and it’s such an honour to be able to be part of that.