Instead of buying each other gifts for birthdays and Christmas, Elianna Stanners and her dad Russell Stanners often give each other concert tickets.

Elianna and Russell, who both reside in the Huntsville area, go to a ton of shows together, seeing artists like Slash, Old Crow Medicine Show and Drive-By Truckers. They love sharing the electric experience only great live music can give you.

“It’s good to listen to a recording,” Elianna, a college student in her early 20s, says. “But you can really feel more of the emotion and the story that artist is trying to tell when you see it live.” Her favorite artists include Jason Isbell. “He’s got a lot of great songs,” she says.

Russell has made it his passion and priority to give Elianna, who is disabled and uses a wheelchair, the best possible concert experiences. He’s also not shy about letting venues know what they could do better.

In the last five years, the addition of Orion Amphitheater and Von Braun Center’s Mars Music Hall have vastly increased the number of concerts and desirable tours that come to Huntsville. That includes many artists that, in the past, fans would have traveled to Birmingham, Nashville or Atlanta for. The likes of Neil Young, Lana Del Rey, Gary Clark Jr., Phish, Master P, Lainey Wilson and Lindsey Buckingham.

Music, especially live music, is celebrated for bringing together people of different races, religions, economics and politics. But concerts, in Huntsville and beyond, also bring together people of different levels of ability and disability. This deserves more awareness.

GETTING ACCESSIBILITY RIGHT

Local musician Taylor Burton, who uses a wheelchair, says, “Dignity is the word I always come back to, with everything that any disabled person has ever fought for.” Making concerts accessible, Burton says comes down to, “the fact that we’re all human beings. We’re all trying to get through this thing we call life, to paraphrase Prince,” referencing the spoken intro to Prince’s classic hit “Let’s Go Crazy.”

Besides doing right, there’s a financial incentive for concerts to be accessible. Stanners says: “You get more in the way of sales because more people would be willing to go because they could. Wheelchair users, other people who have needs like that, tend to not go because they already assume it’s not going to work for them.”

Sightlines are a critical issue for fans who use wheelchairs. Especially for general admission, standing room only shows. Taylor says, “You’re paying money to be a spectator and you’re at ass level.” Taylor credits Mars Music Hall, which opened in 2020, for adding a platform on the floor during standing room only shows. It’s intended for fans with disabilities.

Orion designed its ADA, or Americans with Disabilities Act, seats to have a gap between them and the row below them.

Ryan Murphy was Orion’s original general manager and is now a partner with the company that owns and operates the amphitheater, tvg hospitality. “The way these [ADA] seats are designed,” Murphy says, “if that person in the seat in front of you stands up and their hands are in the air, you still have a perfect sight line.”

Accessibility was baked into Orion, which opened spring 2021. The tvg leadership sought input from the local disabled community during the design and building process.

For example, Stanners offered insights and photos from his and Eliana’s experiences at concerts. Murphy’s own son has mobility issues, so “accessibility is a thing that’s on the forefront for me,” says Murphy, whose family still resides in Huntsville.

Fans with ADA tickets to Orion concerts can contact Orion’s box office in advance of the show to request pickup via golf cart to take them from parking to the venue entrance.

At Von Braun Center, which opened 50 years ago, ADA seating includes 84 spots for concerts at their Propst Arena. That’s double what’s required, according to VBC director of marketing Samantha Nielsen. In the VBC’s Mark C. Smith Concert Hall there are 32 ADA seats. And in the Mars Music Hall there are 12 seats in the balcony section, in addition to the floor-level platform for standing room only shows there.

The American with Disabilities Act requires venues to allow fans in ADA seats to have up to three non-ADA ticketholders seated next to them. “That goes back to dignity too,” Burton says. “Because I’m a human being that has friends in the social life and I would like to go and experience a concert with those people.”

Before that requirement was added to the law, Burton spent many concerts a few rows back from the rest of his family or friends. “They would take turns ‘hanging out with Taylor,’” he says, “and it sucked.”

‘THAT’S WHY WE DO OUR JOBS’

Accessibility begins at the ticket buying stage, says VBC box office manager Jessica Jackson. “If somebody has an app on their phone and they’re vision impaired, it’ll read to them what’s on the page. I think that’s pretty standard nowadays.”

At concerts, the VBC offers amplified hearing aid devices and signing for hard of hearing concert goers. Nielsen has a fond memory of a visually impaired fan at a Reba McIntire show at Propst Arena rejoicing in the moment with the help of an interpreter from the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind.

“She [the fan] was able to come enjoy the show,” Nielsen says, “and have the same experience that anybody else would.”

Both the VBC and Orion partner with KultureCity, a nonprofit that works with venues to provide resources and train staff to assist concertgoers with sensory processing disorders, including autism. KultureCity sensory bags at venues include noise-reducing headphones, room darkening glasses, non-verbal cue cards, fidget toys and weighted lap pads, to give those with sensory processing disorders the best possible concert experience.

Kamerra Liles, Orion’s assistant general manager, recalls a concert where a young guest with sensory issues was struggling in a corner and covering his ears. One of Orion’s guest service assistants, or GSAs, brought a KultureCity bag to the guest.

“She put the headphones on him,” Liles says, “And then he immediately started dancing. The GSA, the guest services assistant, she started dancing with him, and his face started to light up even more, and they danced the whole rest of the show.”

After the concert, that GSA went to Liles and said, “I hope it was OK that I wasn’t really doing my job, watching my section anymore. I was dancing with the kid.” Liles replied, “That was doing your job. You were serving the guests.”

Liles tells me, “We want people to come and light up for just those little bits of hours. And it doesn’t matter what’s going on in the world or what’s going on in our lives at that time or what our ability might be. For one moment we’re enjoying that artist at the Orion. And that’s why we do our jobs.”

Liles’ son, who’s a wheelchair user, is also part of Orion’s staff, working in the box office. “There’s not a lot of open doors, I think, that people give people with disabilities,” Liles says. “And the Orion has been that open door for him.”

THE IMPORTANCE OF AUTONOMY

Details are crucial for accessibility at concert venues. For example, getting curb cuts — the small ramps built into sidewalk edges to smooth transition from street to sidewalk — right. Not making parking harder than it should be. Ramps outside and within the venue that aren’t too steep. Bathroom doors that aren’t too heavy and bathroom stalls that aren’t too narrow. Putting elevators in logical places.

At concessions stands, if point of sale screens are in fixed positions, people who use wheelchairs often can’t view and access the screens. Then a concessions employee must complete the transaction — swipe the debit card, approve the purchase amount, enter a tip — for them.

Elianna Stanners’ dad Russell Stanners says, “People are nice. They assist. But that’s part of the problem in that you’re not giving a person full autonomy.”

Russell, who works as a multimedia specialist for a defense contractor, and Elianna often travel to Nashville and Birmingham for shows. They say Huntsville’s Orion is hands down the best venue for accessibility they’ve ever been to.

Russell points to a packed 2024 performance by jam-band stars Phish as an example: “Mobs and mobs and mobs of people. She got around everything and did everything, no problem. Orion is just so special in the fact that they were deliberate,” about prioritizing accessibility during design and construction of the venue.

‘YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW’

Other concert fans can also impact the experience for fans in wheelchairs. Most people wouldn’t intentionally block someone’s view or passage at a show, but it still happens frequently.

“You don’t know what you don’t know,” Elianna Stanners says. ”It’s hard to think about stuff you’ve never had to really experience or deal with. So, it’s not on purpose, but at the same time it gets frustrating.” She hastens to add that when she asks others at concerts to move a little so she can get by or see, “most of the people are actually very, very sweet and very good about it.”

Then there are issues related to intoxicated fans. “I’ve had some keep hugging me or pat my head,” Elianna says. “I’m a tactile person, but sometimes even I’m like please stop.”

After a concert by a country music legend in Huntsville, Taylor Burton was on his way back to his car when a drunken fan jumped on the back of Burton’s wheelchair and acted a fool. “It was awful,” Burton says. “And it made me feel like a punchline. I think some of those people live under rocks and are still not used to seeing people out in public that get around differently than they do.”

Burton has also had great experiences at concerts related to accessibility. “There are times,” he says, “when tall people who are in front of me notice that I’m behind them, and it’ll be like a general admission situation, and they push me up to the front against the barricade so that I could see. And that’s a cool thing.”

‘IT’S A RIGHT OR WRONG THING’

At the first year of Shoals Fest in Florence, Alabama, the ADA platform was set up perfectly, Burton recalls. “It was an amazing line of sight. I actually sat right next to Jason Isbell’s grandmother.”

People who love music the most often become musicians themselves. Elianna has sung with her college choir at Alabama A&M University. Burton, a graphic designer by trade, hosts a recurring open-mic at the venue Electric Belle with backing from top Huntsville musicians. And this fall, his alt-country band the Silver Silos will release their debut album.

Burton notes that some notable musicians, including alt-rock band “Portugal. The Man” guitarist Eric Howk, use wheelchairs. So it’s important venues are accessible for performers and fans alike. Things like having ramps to get on and off the stage, so a musician doesn’t have to leave their chair and, as Burton puts it, “booty scoot up the stairs to get onstage.” Ramps also must be gradual enough that people who use wheelchairs don’t need someone else to push them up.

Of notable Huntsville venues he’s performed at, Burton lauds the 8,000 capacity Orion Amphitheater and tiny venues St. Stephens Music Hall and Tangled String Studios for making sure their stages are accessible.

“Venue owners should put themselves in the shoes of disabled people,” Burton says. “I think some of them are definitely not doing it. And I think that they’re assuming that we’re not out there and that we’re too small of a market share to be worth the expense. But after a while it’s a right or wrong thing.”