So this is the question (OK, it's my question): Will the Philadelphia
Folk Festival have adequate handicapped parking this year? They used
to have ample parking for the disabled but over the years, they began
to give it away to "Friends of the Festival," people who pay big bucks
for nice perks, including space in what was the handicapped parking
lot. It is been an incremental move over the last few years, but last
year was the big grab and the Fest had very little space left for the
disabled. We were instead shipped to distant lots and bussed in with
everyone else. The busses are overcrowded and to get one requires
standing (yes, standing) in line for over an hour at the end of each
evening. Once on the bus, we are jostled and bumped by all the stuff
we and everyone else has to carry by hand for the day (chairs,
blankets, coolers (which is its own challenge)). For someone with
allodynia (pain on contact) and who walks with a cane, it was and is
quite painful. It was hellish, actually. I complained about it last
year to Festival staff and I wrote to the Folksong Society about it a
couple of weeks ago, but got no response. Do they care?
