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Reporter Rob Crossan was at last weekend's Glastonbury Festival where he soaked up the atmosphere and 'took the disability temperature' for want of a better way of putting it. Here's the report he sent us.

So we came, we saw, we got our wellington boots encrusted with finest Somerset sludge and ate vegetarian wraps of highly dubious progeny. And for anyone who came in a wheelchair, Glastonbury 2011 was a four day exercise in seeing if the 'all terrain' guarantee really was worth the paper it was written on.

Judging by the woman I saw attempting vainly to rev her way out of a particularly viscous patch of muddy gloop near the Pyramid stage last Friday, it's probably fair to say that there's a few e-mail complaints lodged within the in-box of some leading wheelchair makers right about now.

The disability camping area was bigger than ever before this year, and arriving by motor home for the first time (my eco-credentials lie in tatters) the attempts by the endlessly patient stewards to get everyone in whilst battling conditions of increasing boot sucking muddiness on day one, was nothing short of heroic.

There were around 430 people in the Spring Ground disability camp site but the huge increase in juggernaut sized motor homes and decrease in old school VW camper vans meant that the area felt more packed than it ever has been.

'Crips' aplenty were spotted all over the festival but, on the basis of my utterly random and unscientific vox popping around the disability campsite, almost 'none' of them were aware that there was an entire afternoon of music by artists with disabilities on the Club Dada stage on the Saturday afternoon.

Promoters decided not to mention in the programme that the artists they'd booked all had disabilities: a tactic which many would agree makes a certain degree of sense.

For many non-disabled attendees, the idea of trekking to the far corner of the festival for a 'disability all dayer' whilst nursing a colossal hangover, isn't an easy one to sell. And whose fault is that? 'Society' my friend.

The Saturday afternoon binge of Club Attitude bands and DJ's started so well. Long time Ouch! Talk Show favourites Captain Angelo and Heavy Load both delivered sets to decent size crowds of around 50.

Heavy Load went around the crowd before their set to get suggestions of things to shout out during their freeform Pistols style anthem 'Everything is B------s'.

I think my suggestion of 'The Only Way is Essex' got a mention, but the bilious guitars made Simon Barker's vocals all but unintelligible - in the best possible punk spirit of course - by this acclaimed band of musicians with learning difficulties.

Captain Angelo singer Miles-Alex Peckover looked the spitting image of Richard Thompson circa 1971 with full beard and tatty red v-neck. His band's Belle and Sebastian esque fluttery gems seemed to scatter clean cotton sheets and mugs of soothing hot chocolate, over the begrimed crowd. And if you are a regular listener to our talk show, you'd know that at least one and a half of the band members are happily lounging somewhere on the autistic spectrum.

And then, suddenly, everyone disappeared.

Deaf Rave tried their best with some actually rather superb throbbing electro but the only person dancing was my photographer, Gordon. In fact, the two of us were the only people in the entire tent by that stage.

Bigger than in previous years, the mini Epcot Centre dome, complete with huge model of Earth and the moon hanging from the ceiling, suddenly felt larger than the Olympic Village in Stratford.

A couple of people hung around for a few minutes during the following DJ set from Tom and Stella OBE but, for my snapper and I, the notion of continuing to dance in an uninhabited tent as the afternoon wore on was becoming slightly embarrassing.

So why was so much great music ignored by so many?

Let's go back to how it was promoted. Not emphasising the fact that the artists on stage had disabilities is to be lauded - after all, why should that be the most important thing about them? When do we stop having to tell the world there's stuff wrong with us, and all that?

But is the idea of mentioning that these bands and artists have disabilities really such a bad thing? Creating talented role models could be seen as a positive development, especially if, like Heavy Load, their message is about as far from the patronising notion of being 'special' as it's possible to get.

In attempting to rid the likes of Captain Angelo and Deaf Rave from being labelled, the result was that disabled festival goers and their friends didn't appreciate there was a unique selling point to this event. Had they known, there may have been more bums in tents. And playing a set to nobody out of a potential audience of nearly 200,000 must be a little soul destroying for all concerned.

You can hear the organisers of Club Attitude's stage on Ouch! Talk Show 71 - where they discuss the challenges and successes of Glastonbury prior to this year's festival.