Anger at ‘miracle' recovery of fans in disabled area at Oasis gig

Times

6 days ago

A disabled Oasis fan has described the 'biblical' moment when seemingly wheelchair-bound concertgoers stood up and danced, amid fears that tickets for the disabled area had been resold to able-bodied concertgoers.
Mark Chapman, 32, said that he had seen fans at Heaton Park in Manchester abandon their crutches and wheelchairs on the accessible platform when the Gallagher brothers took to the stage. He believes that fans desperate to secure tickets for the band's reunion tour had purchased tickets meant for those with genuine disabilities from online resellers.
In a social media post after the concert, Chapman, who was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy when he was five years old, wrote: 'The behaviour of some attendees was unacceptable as they clearly weren't disabled.
'They were literally just standing for the whole time, they kept leaving the [accessible] platform and joining their friends in front of the platform and leaving their wheelchairs behind and crutches behind, and [again] when they went to the toilet.
'It's really frustrating. I could see people in front of the platform who were clearly struggling who had to stand there without a seat, and there were people on the platform who didn't need to be there.'
Accessible area tickets for the show were available on the secondary resale site Viagogo for £634 each and were sold in pairs, according to reports.
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Chapman himself struggled to get tickets for the accessible area and ultimately had to buy standard tickets for himself and his carer Sam Priest, who would normally be given a companion ticket free of charge if booked officially.
Chapman, a podcaster, said: 'There were loads of people in wheelchairs and with crutches, but when Oasis came on they all jumped out their wheelchairs and dropped their crutches and stood up for the whole gig for two hours.
'Me being quite severely disabled, I know that standing up for two hours is very, very unlikely.'
Priest added: 'We were joking Jesus Christ must have been on the platforms, there were so many miracles performed that night.'
Chapman, of Wilmslow in Cheshire, was later able to get a refund for Priest's ticket after he contacted organisers to explain the situation and had to join a waiting list to enter the raised accessible area on the day itself.