Utilita Arena Cardiff Accessibility Review

Image Description: Emma's view from accessible seating at the Utilita Arena Cardiff. The floor standing section is visible below the balcony, with a crowd of fans in front of the stage. The stage itself is light in a pink/purple hue and looks cloudy as though smoke machines have just been tested

Back with another accessibility review. This time for Utilita Arena Cardiff (or Cardiff International Arena as it was when I visited) from seeing Dermot Kennedy there in April 2023 

(Disclaimer: I’m aware “accessibility” means different things to different people, as I said before, these are MY views on my experience of accessibility at this venue as an electric wheelchair user, I obviously can’t speak for others experiences but feel free to add your experiences in the comments!)  

Ticket Buying 

I initially called the venue as I had presale but couldn’t access it via Ticketmaster. However, after finally getting through Ticketmaster on general sale day, I had my tickets for Box Office collection. 

Travel and Hotel 

The travel and hotel part of this is fairly standard to me as Cardiff is somewhere I go quite often. The train journey was from Birmingham New Street to Cardiff Central with Cross Country and was straightforward. The Cross-Country trains to Cardiff are significantly lower than their other trains so I didn’t even have my usual Cross Country ramp issues. From the train station I headed to my usual hotel (Ibis Budget Cardiff Centre) which I have reviewed previously. 

Experience & Seating 

As I said earlier, my tickets were box office collection, so the first port of call was to head to the arena to pick up paper tickets for the first time in A WHILE. When it came time to enter the arena. I was given a wristband and then sent up in a lift with directions to my seat. The seat ended up being a balcony seat. It was a way back towards the back of the arena, but I still got a good view of Dermot and the whole stage setup. There were accessible toilets, but they were a little way away outside of the actual venue room, so try and time toilet breaks if there are specific songs you don’t want to miss. I also made use of the at seat drink service. This was quite useful as I could avoid leaving the room during the show, particularly as things such as going to the bar generally take me longer as a disabled person. 

Overall, I found Utilita Arena Cardiff (formerly Cardiff International Arena) to be quite accessible and would return.  

Stay Invincible! 

Em (Invincible Woman On Wheels)