In order to allow music to reach everyone, and as a brand with a cause, MEO has teamed up with the Access Lab consultancy - renowned for its experience and approach in the area of accessibility - to design an action plan that, on the ground, provides the best conditions for welcoming people with different disabilities. MEO Marés Vivas will be the debut stage for this new inclusive approach, MEO 's commitment to the community and to music, which will be extended to all music festivals and initiatives, ensuring that accessibility and inclusion reach all musical experiences.
The inclusion measures that will be adopted at music events cover three main areas:
- People with reduced mobility: improved accessibility at the venues - larger and better positioned platforms; specific signage; more special toilets; lowered counters at key services; stands with free wheelchairs and electric propulsors, among others;
- Neuro-divergent population: pause rooms will be set up and sensory kits will be offered for regulation in a crisis context; a visual guide to the event will also be made available to inform people in advance of the location and visual appearance of the main venues and services at the venue;
- Deaf people: On the first day of the event - when the Portuguese language will be heard the most on the main stage - the hearing-impaired public will have an area with vibrating vests and Portuguese sign language interpreters.
"MEO has been a pioneer in the way it has always made it a priority to ensure that technological innovation serves a more humane and inclusive society. This is a key area of our proximity policy and as a brand of causes. For a long time now, we have been investing in measures such as vibrating vests, in partnership with MEO Arena, for example. In 2023, we saw MEO KALORAMA distinguished with the Accessible Festival label, awarded by Turismo de Portugal and the National Rehabilitation Institute. Now it's a question of taking a step forward in our commitment to customers and the community in general, broadening the universe of events where this happens, with a global and structured plan in this area," says Luíza Galindo, MEO's brand and communications director.
This festival season, in addition to MEO Marés Vivas, the accessibility plan will also cover MEO Kalorama, which will take place at the end of August in Lisbon's Belavista Park. By 2025, the brand's goal is for all the festivals to which it lends its name to guarantee access to music for all people with disabilities, further humanizing the experience of live shows. As a brand with causes, in addition to intervening in the pressing problems of the society in which it operates, MEO does not neglect the importance of raising awareness through example. In this sense, the brand's new positioning will be reflected in a new logo and a spot, developed by TTouch, which will be broadcast on the main stage of the MEO Marés Vivas festival and on MEO's social networks. 'Meaning' is the watchword in the message with which MEO commits itself to "giving festivals more meaning", with "accessibility and inclusion for all".