One accessible seat, a whole group of fans: a £14.6 billion audience and a festival built for it.
The Inclusive Sport & Culture Festival (ISCF) has a big ambition: to become the blueprint for how accessible events are put together from here on. Over seven days in Liverpool, it will put elite athletes and incredible artists and performers from around the world centre stage, in a festival designed from the start so that everyone can take part and enjoy it.
That matters first because everyone deserves access to world-class sport and culture. But there’s even more reason for businesses to pay attention. Disabled people, their families and their friends are one of the most valuable audiences in the UK, and one of the most underserved by live events. The ISCF is being built around them, and that makes it a rare opportunity for brand partners.
The scale of the opportunity
There are 16.7 million disabled people in the UK, around a quarter of the population, and nearly a third of households in England include a disabled person.
When they travel, they spend. VisitEngland values accessible tourism, meaning trips taken by people with an impairment and the people travelling with them, at £14.6 billion a year in England, across 201.5 million trips. Visitors from overseas in this group stay longer, 12.2 nights on average against 7.7, and spend more, £863 per visit against £819.
There's growth still to come. VisitEngland estimates that removing access and cost barriers could add a further £1 billion to that market. That's the purple pound in real terms: a large audience, and a real opportunity for the events and brands that welcome them properly.
One accessible seat, a whole group of fans
The detail that matters most is how this audience arrives. A disabled visitor rarely travels alone, so VisitEngland counts them and their companions together. An accessible seat doesn't bring in one ticket. It brings friends, family and everything they spend across the day.
Small things make a big difference. In Euan's Guide's access survey, 62% of disabled people said they avoid a venue that hasn't published its access information. Getting the basics right, and saying so clearly, wins people over. And what works for people with access needs works better for everyone, from the family with a buggy to the visitor who simply likes to know what to expect.
Where brands can stand out
Only 4% of UK adverts feature disabled people, and just 2% in a leading role. For brands that want to reach this audience, there's a real chance to be seen and remembered for doing it well.
We start from a simple position: everyone should be able to enjoy elite sport and great culture. The numbers show that doing it properly is good business too.
That's why we see the ISCF as a valuable marketing opportunity with social responsibility at its heart, not the other way around.
Built for this audience from day one
The ISCF takes place on Liverpool's waterfront from 2 to 8 May 2027.
Four Paralympic-pathway sports, with the Boccia competition counting towards qualification for the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games. Para Athletics and Para Canoe outdoors and free to watch. More than 25,000 spectators expected across the week. And alongside the sport, a groundbreaking £1m+ arts and culture programme, funded by Arts Council England and delivered with Culture Liverpool, led by D/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists.
Accessibility is designed in from the start rather than added at the end, and the festival's social impact programme, from paid roles and apprenticeships to volunteering and schools, is already under way. You can read more about it in The road to Los Angeles runs through Liverpool.
Liverpool is the right home for it. Around 22% of Liverpool City Region residents are disabled, against an England average of 17.7%, and the city has a strong record of hosting major events, with Eurovision 2023 bringing £54.8 million into the region. The ISCF is the first of four major events in the city across 2027 and 2028, with accessibility running through all of them.
What partners get
A direct line to a large and underserved audience, and the families and friends who come with them
Association with elite Para sport on the road to LA28 and a groundbreaking arts programme led by disabled artists
One partnership that spans sport and culture together, in one of the UK's great event cities
A story that runs across two Liverpool events: the ISCF in May and the IWBF European Wheelchair Basketball Championships in September
A visible commitment to inclusion, backed by real delivery
Room to shape your activation now, while the festival is still being built
Come with us
Partnership conversations are open now across multiple tiers, for both the ISCF in May 2027 and the IWBF European Wheelchair Basketball Championships that September, both delivered by UKEL in Liverpool. We're happy to share the research behind every figure in this piece.
Together we can achieve great things, so please get in touch with alastair@ukel.co.uk and let's talk.
The Inclusive Sport & Culture Festival takes place in Liverpool, 2 to 8 May 2027.
Sources: DWP Family Resources Survey 2024/25; ONS Census 2021; VisitEngland accessible tourism research (Great Britain Tourism Survey 2024 and International Passenger Survey 2023); Euan's Guide Access Survey 2024; Channel 4 Mirror on the Industry, 2025; Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Liverpool City Council Eurovision 2023 evaluation.
