Can you afford to attend? Exploring financial exclusion in events to improve accessibility.
Author: Anasooya Sathyan
1 Commentries
Abstract
This paper explores how financial barriers limit access to events for lower-income groups despite the important role that events play in supporting wellbeing, social inclusion and community connection. Issues including ticket pricing, additional costs, transport limitations and limited government support are explored, and recommendations of more inclusive pricing models, greater funding, transport developments and overall greater collaboration are proposed to improve accessibility for lower-income groups and wider social justice in events.
Key Words
Financial Exclusion, Accessibility, Event Participation, Lower-Income Groups, Affordability, Inclusion
Everyone deserves a break from the pressures of everyday life and events are a great way for people to relax, known to improve wellbeing, strengthen social connection and help people feel included within society (Davies et al., 2023). However, attending events can be far from simple for people from lower-income backgrounds.
Events like festivals and major sporting games are notorious for being expensive and their high-ticket costs make it harder for everyone to attend. This is problematic as it paints these experiences as a luxury that excludes lower-income groups from attending. Added event costs for travel, accommodation, food, as well as peak pricing, can also make events less affordable. Additional costs that come with attending events need to be accounted for which in turn makes attending events less realistic for lower-income groups. The availability of efficient public transport also plays a part in event participation, and poorly developed public transport systems can make event attendance harder for lower-income groups, restricting them to only attending local, smaller events. Most events have an element of spending during the event where higher spending correlates with better event enjoyment (Rivera et al., 2008). This can mean events become less enjoyable for lower-income participants who may have lower spending abilities and may contribute to making event participation harder and less inclusive. Cultural and community events are particularly useful in promoting inclusion and belonging (Rydzik and Price, 2025) but can come with financial and location-based barriers which make access harder for disadvantaged groups. This creates difficulties for supporting diversity and representation in communities and highlights the importance of events in wider social justice.
In an attempt to make events more affordable, some events use payment instalment plans to spread out the cost of tickets. However, this is an unsustainable approach to tackling affordability in events as it fails to address the expensive nature of entry and encourages debt-related spending. This targets lower-income customers and can reinforce harmful stereotypes about spending choices. To improve event accessibility, organisers do occasionally collaborate with charities to create more socially focused events and make events more affordable for attendees. While this can help lower-income groups participate in social and cultural events, collaboration amongst charities and event organisers is limited and there are few schemes that are widely used to improve financial inclusion. Moreover, reliance on purely charity-based solutions to improve accessibility for lower-income groups can shift the responsibility entirely onto organisers, which limits the long-term sustainability of such inclusion measures and may discourage organisers from adopting accessibility as a core event value. Current schemes that partner events with public transport to make tickets cheaper for eventgoers are effective in incentivising participation. This improves access for lower-income groups as costs are reduced and has wider environmental benefits as less people utilise private transportation. Arts and cultural council funding is highly important in running events that are inclusive, accessible to attend and provide social benefits like community connection (Davies et al., 2023). While it is used within event spaces, funding is continually limited which reduces events’ effectiveness in supporting inclusion and removing financial barriers to event participation.
To improve the financial accessibility of events and increase participation from lower-income groups, a range of approaches and measures can be taken. The most obvious step that organisers can take to improving event affordability is using more accessible pricing to make tickets cheaper for lower-income groups. This removes the idea that certain events are luxury experiences and can reduce exclusion from these spaces. Other pricing strategies can also be used, like Pay-As-You-Want models, which are more empowering and reflect attendees’ spending abilities. Ultimately, organisers should be clear in what attendees can expect to spend at events. Organisers should have more widespread partnerships with charities and greater funding is needed for arts and cultural councils to create accessible events that support community development. The biggest emphasis is on governments collaborating more effectively, notably to provide efficient transport that improves event access but using local venues can aid in reducing geographic barriers with community integration in rural areas. Financial accessibility is therefore argued to be viewed as an opportunity and should be embraced as a shared responsibility between organisers, governments and wider stakeholders.
References
Davies, K., Gouthro, M. B., Matthews, N. & Richards, V. (2023) Festival participation, inclusion and poverty: an exploratory study. Tourism and Hospitality, 4(1). Available from https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5768/4/1/5 [accessed 12 May 2026].
Rivera, M. A., Hara, T. & Kock, G. (2008) Economic impact of cultural events: the case of the Zora! Festival. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 3(2) 121-137. Available from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17438730802138139 [accessed 12 May 2026].
Rydzik, A. & Price, L. (2025) Carving spaces of hospitality: place attachment among migrant and non-migrant residents in a rural town undergoing rapid demographic change. Hospitality & Society, 15(1-2) 153-176. Available from https://intellectdiscover.com/docserver/fulltext/hosp/15/1-2/hosp.15.1-2.153_Rydzik.pdf?expires=1779731421&id=id&accname=humberuni&checksum=0C78AE3378E48CD44282E190235C25CF [accessed 18 May 2026].
This paper explores how financial barriers limit access to events for lower-income groups despite the important role that events play in supporting wellbeing, social inclusion and community connection. Issues including ticket pricing, additional costs, transport limitations and limited government support are explored, and recommendations of more inclusive pricing models, greater funding, transport developments and overall greater collaboration are proposed to improve accessibility for lower-income groups and wider social justice in events.
Key Words
Financial Exclusion, Accessibility, Event Participation, Lower-Income Groups, Affordability, Inclusion
Everyone deserves a break from the pressures of everyday life and events are a great way for people to relax, known to improve wellbeing, strengthen social connection and help people feel included within society (Davies et al., 2023). However, attending events can be far from simple for people from lower-income backgrounds.
Events like festivals and major sporting games are notorious for being expensive and their high-ticket costs make it harder for everyone to attend. This is problematic as it paints these experiences as a luxury that excludes lower-income groups from attending. Added event costs for travel, accommodation, food, as well as peak pricing, can also make events less affordable. Additional costs that come with attending events need to be accounted for which in turn makes attending events less realistic for lower-income groups. The availability of efficient public transport also plays a part in event participation, and poorly developed public transport systems can make event attendance harder for lower-income groups, restricting them to only attending local, smaller events. Most events have an element of spending during the event where higher spending correlates with better event enjoyment (Rivera et al., 2008). This can mean events become less enjoyable for lower-income participants who may have lower spending abilities and may contribute to making event participation harder and less inclusive. Cultural and community events are particularly useful in promoting inclusion and belonging (Rydzik and Price, 2025) but can come with financial and location-based barriers which make access harder for disadvantaged groups. This creates difficulties for supporting diversity and representation in communities and highlights the importance of events in wider social justice.
In an attempt to make events more affordable, some events use payment instalment plans to spread out the cost of tickets. However, this is an unsustainable approach to tackling affordability in events as it fails to address the expensive nature of entry and encourages debt-related spending. This targets lower-income customers and can reinforce harmful stereotypes about spending choices. To improve event accessibility, organisers do occasionally collaborate with charities to create more socially focused events and make events more affordable for attendees. While this can help lower-income groups participate in social and cultural events, collaboration amongst charities and event organisers is limited and there are few schemes that are widely used to improve financial inclusion. Moreover, reliance on purely charity-based solutions to improve accessibility for lower-income groups can shift the responsibility entirely onto organisers, which limits the long-term sustainability of such inclusion measures and may discourage organisers from adopting accessibility as a core event value. Current schemes that partner events with public transport to make tickets cheaper for eventgoers are effective in incentivising participation. This improves access for lower-income groups as costs are reduced and has wider environmental benefits as less people utilise private transportation. Arts and cultural council funding is highly important in running events that are inclusive, accessible to attend and provide social benefits like community connection (Davies et al., 2023). While it is used within event spaces, funding is continually limited which reduces events’ effectiveness in supporting inclusion and removing financial barriers to event participation.
To improve the financial accessibility of events and increase participation from lower-income groups, a range of approaches and measures can be taken. The most obvious step that organisers can take to improving event affordability is using more accessible pricing to make tickets cheaper for lower-income groups. This removes the idea that certain events are luxury experiences and can reduce exclusion from these spaces. Other pricing strategies can also be used, like Pay-As-You-Want models, which are more empowering and reflect attendees’ spending abilities. Ultimately, organisers should be clear in what attendees can expect to spend at events. Organisers should have more widespread partnerships with charities and greater funding is needed for arts and cultural councils to create accessible events that support community development. The biggest emphasis is on governments collaborating more effectively, notably to provide efficient transport that improves event access but using local venues can aid in reducing geographic barriers with community integration in rural areas. Financial accessibility is therefore argued to be viewed as an opportunity and should be embraced as a shared responsibility between organisers, governments and wider stakeholders.
References
Davies, K., Gouthro, M. B., Matthews, N. & Richards, V. (2023) Festival participation, inclusion and poverty: an exploratory study. Tourism and Hospitality, 4(1). Available from https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5768/4/1/5 [accessed 12 May 2026].
Rivera, M. A., Hara, T. & Kock, G. (2008) Economic impact of cultural events: the case of the Zora! Festival. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 3(2) 121-137. Available from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17438730802138139 [accessed 12 May 2026].
Rydzik, A. & Price, L. (2025) Carving spaces of hospitality: place attachment among migrant and non-migrant residents in a rural town undergoing rapid demographic change. Hospitality & Society, 15(1-2) 153-176. Available from https://intellectdiscover.com/docserver/fulltext/hosp/15/1-2/hosp.15.1-2.153_Rydzik.pdf?expires=1779731421&id=id&accname=humberuni&checksum=0C78AE3378E48CD44282E190235C25CF [accessed 18 May 2026].