Co-productive inclusive event planning

Wheel Fest 2025 was a joint effort between Peter Hull MBE, Ross Care and Solent University to bring inclusive wheelchair sport and activities to the city of Southampton, to encourage and enable people with a disability/impairment to enjoy a range of wheelchair sports and activities, such as wheelchair dance, as well as raising awareness of the importance of inclusive sports and activities. 

The event took place on Saturday 7th June at Solent University sports complex between 10am – 3pm. We had special guests attend the event, such as the Lord Mayor of Southampton who came and opened the event, providing us with a short speech and even took part in wheelchair rugby! We also had Paralympic wheelchair rugby gold medallist Aaron Phipps join us for the opening speech, who shared a few words himself.

Activities that took place were wheelchair rugby, wheelchair basketball, powerchair football, wheelchair dance, and even wheelchair skills which was provided by Stuart from Freedom Wheelchair skills. All the clubs kindly travelled and joined us for the event to provide their skills and expertise.

There is a page on Instagram dedicated to the Wheel Fest event @wheelfest.2025 where you can find more photos and videos of the wheelchair sports and event in action.