A disabled Aussie heavy metal fan has been left humiliated after he was turned away from seeing one of his favourite bands because he uses a wheelchair.
Dylan Taylor went to the Pier Bandroom venue in the Melbourne suburb of Frankston to see Sydney band Polaris on July 28, but to his shock, he was refused entry.
There was nothing on his concert ticket, nor on the venue’s website or social media, saying that people in wheelchairs would not be allowed in.
But after Mr Taylor, 32, travelled for over an hour with some friends to get to the venue, he soon realised something was up.
‘I got to the front of the line, and they were checking IDs like normal, and one of the bouncers wouldn’t even acknowledge that I was there,’ he told 7News.
He was holding up his driver’s licence, but the security staff did not look at it.
Mr Taylor was confused about what was happening until another doorman told him ‘Nup, sorry mate, no wheelchairs’ – which he said was ‘blatant discrimination’.
The group asked for a manager to come out to talk to them to see if they could sort out a way for them all to be allowed in.
Eventually the manager allegedly told the group that it would be a fire safety risk to let Mr Taylor in and that the bouncers would not carry a wheelchair user out if there was a fire.
‘I’m spewin’ because, at this point, I haven’t even paid my friends back for the ticket, and I’ve ruined their night out,’ he said.
When his friends said they’d seen someone in a wheelchair in the same venue two weeks earlier, they were told that person was able to walk some distance and didn’t always need their wheelchair.
A spokesperson from the Pier Bandroom owner, Endeavour Group, said the venue was sorry for the distress caused.
They said the Pier Hotel was built in the 1800s and the Bandroom venue is ‘only accessible by stairs, and is not wheelchair accessible’.
‘We apologise to any ticket holders who were not given adequate information about our venue’s policies at the time of purchasing tickets to recent concerts.’
They added that the Pier Bandroom’s website will be updated to make the rules around wheelchair non-access clear.
It’s understood the tickets were later refunded.
Ironically, Mr Taylor had already seen Polaris play when he was living in San Diego, California and even got to fist-pump the band while crowd-surfing in his wheelchair.
‘You could just count on the fact that you could get your wheelchair in there,’ he said.
It was in San Diego where, 18 months ago, he got a permanent spinal injury while riding his BMX bike.
Mr Taylor said what happened to him in Frankston ‘was the first time I’ve faced, I would say, pretty blatant discrimination’.
‘You feel pretty empty inside, and I did have a little cry in the car on the way home’.
Mr Taylor said the experience really upset him as it made him realise what people who have been disabled their whole life have to deal with.
‘(People) who maybe haven’t had the other half of life I’ve had, to be able to go and experience these things before being in a wheelchair,’ he said.
Mr Taylor said the past 18 months had been ‘a steep learning curve’ to discover how much of his life is now held back by a lack of wheelchair access.
‘Melbourne will accept the reputation of being inclusive and accepting, but it’s not necessarily accessible,’ he said.
A new National Arts and Disability Associated Plan, which is getting $7.9million in funding from the federal government, will help support people with a disability to access and take part in the arts.
Daily Mail has contacted both Pier Bandroom and Polaris for comment.