Back in March, Melbourne based independent accessibility consultancy Tibi Access presented its first inclusive event, Groove Tunes. It was the first instalment of their annual event series that presents a fun and accessible night of entertainment, highlighting the creativity and inclusivity of the wide range of abilities in the community while creating awareness to excel standards of accessibility in the music industry. Hazy Days Music would like to thank Tibi Access Founder and Groove Tunes Event Manager Dina Bassile for taking the time out and having a chat.

Hey ​​Dina! Could you share a little bit about what Tibi Access is? And how it got started?

Tibi was founded in 2018. As a person living with a disability, I saw and experienced first-hand the lack of access within the arts and entertainment industry. Tibi access is about bringing together the disability community and arts community. We focus on three main goals, the first is educating the music and arts industry about how to be more inclusive to people with disability; this is done through the workshops that we provide and lecturing at universities. The second goal is consulting with events, venues and artists of all sizes, and the third is representing and advocating for musicians with disability.

Your first event Groove Tunes was on Saturday 19 March at The Corner Hotel. How was your experience organising this event? And how did you decide on having it at The Corner Hotel?

Planning an entire event from start to finish is quite the job but one we enjoyed thoroughly. It was a learning experience navigating and planning an event through the pandemic, but we got through it! In the early planning stages of Groove Tunes, we visited many venues across Melbourne. We wanted to use a space that was not perfect accessibility wise but had a team that was flexible with us and a space big enough for us to implement different access features, for example, a lowered bar.

I love the pay it forward tickets! How did this idea come about?

A large percentage of the disability community is on the disability support pension, which can limit one's access to community events. We wanted to create an accessible feature that allowed patrons with a disability to attend events and have events still benefit when they cannot afford to give away free tickets. The Pay It Forward initiative was incredibly popular and successful. We even had members of the general public from QLD and NSW purchase tickets for us to give to the disability community.

What was the night like? Could you share some of the highlights?

The event could not have gone any better. It was a night of integration between two communities coming together and celebrating the return of live music. There were plenty of smiles and people dancing and singing together.

Seeing so many people with a range of abilities coming out and singing and dancing their hearts out with their friends and family was a huge highlight. The evening was full of community support and love. To be able to take a step back and take it all in, to see what two years of hard work become a reality, was a very surreal moment for us. It was also really wonderful to see so many organisations and people we have connected with over the years come out and support us and our goals.

Do you have the next event in the works? Can you share anything about this upcoming event?

We are currently finalising the last details from this event. The ultimate goal is to make Groove Tunes an annual event. After some much-needed rest, we will dive straight into planning 2023! We are really looking forward to bringing more artists with disability to our stage and hopefully seeing other events implement the features we had at Groove Tunes.

And what's planned for the rest of the year?

We are excited to continue running workshops throughout the year and working on other events in a consulting capacity!

Stay up to date with all things Tibi Access on their website, Facebook and Instagram.

Posted on the 6th of April, by Jake Taylor.

Special thanks to This Much Talent Australia for organising this opportunity.