Learning disability and neurodiversity festival to return to Nottinghamshire for disability awareness month

OneFest will return to Ashfield and Mansfield this July with a week-long lineup of arts, culture, music and entertainment. The festival aims to highlight and reduce the stigma and discrimination experienced by those with learning difficulties.

July marks disability awareness month and the festival is calling for societal levelling up. There will be an array of artists, comedians and creatives showcasing their talents across seven different events filled with music, video, game tournaments, and comedy shows along with a unique nightclub event.

Performances will start with Nottinghamshire’s first-ever Learning Disability PRIDE event in the heart of Mansfield at the marketplace. The free opening event will offer a PRIDE march and day-long celebration including a long lineup of performers such as Deep Down Brass, ThePETEBOX, The Harry Styles Experience (by Adam Ingles), Dua Lipa (tribute by Rachel Fuller) and The OneFest House Band.

As well as the musical performers, there will be appearances from Neurodivergent and disabled comedians, Harriet Dyer, Richard Stott and David Eagle. The comedians will appear that the ANDWHYNOT venue on Leeming Street. International beatboxing star SK SHLOMO, who has collaborated with megastar acts like Ed Sheeran, Bjork and Gorillaz, will bring their award-winning solo show BREATHE - ‘a rollercoaster love-letter to the lifesaving power of beats, bass and breathing’.

The OneFest festival is organised by the charity organisation, Unanima Theatre and funded by Arts Council England and National Portfolio Organisation.

OneFest organisers Tracy Radford and Brad English first set up the event in 2019 and Tracy said: “OneFest was born out of the desire to give those living with learning disabilities the chance to live in parallel to that of the rest of the population, without prejudice.

“It offers these individuals a supportive space whereby the community can come together to experience new and inclusive culture and creativity, alongside and in celebration of the learning disabled and autistic.”

Tracy added: “Much of the event is BSL-interpreted and is either free to enter or priced at £5 and under, which we’ve done to keep the event as accessible as possible for those that want to come and enjoy the fun.”

Tickets are on sale now for the events that need to pre-booking.