Can People with Noise Sensitivity Attend London Book Fair?

London Book Fair was held at the Olympia from March 11th to 13th, 2025. This event is one of the most crucial in the international publishing landscape, with hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of visitors worldwide. For anyone with noise sensitivity or other accessibility challenges, events like these tend to be problematic.

I figured out a few years ago that I struggle with noise sensitivity. Like many people with neurodivergence, anxiety or even PTSD, overstimulation makes it harder to focus or not feel anxious. Event organizers often fail to think about these issues in their event planning—and LBF is no exception—but thankfully, a few things exist to manage it better.

Here are my tips on how you can attend big loud events as someone who struggles with sound and what LBF can do to improve.

What I would recommend

Plan in advance

Avoiding the overwhelm of large events by planning your days in advance can be tremendously helpful. If you know beforehand which seminars you want to attend and which stands you need to visit, you won’t have to be figuring it out amidst the tumult with dozens of people zooming past you. It also means you can be more efficient and not be in discomfort longer than necessary.

Use noise cancelling devices

Investing in some proper noise cancelling earplugs is life changing. I always recommend the Loop Earplugs to people struggling with noise anxiety. They are impressive at filtering sound waves to lower the volume without that muffling effect. They make everything much more tolerable so you can focus on what really matters.

Lean on your peers

This won’t work for everyone, as some people go to LBF on their own. However, if you are attending with fellow colleagues or students, find out how they can help you and lean on them.

What LBF could improve

Advertize the silent room better

There was a silent room tucked in a corner of the Olympia. Did I use it? No, because I didn’t know it existed until the very last day, right before leaving the venue. Having a silent room was a great initiative in the first place, but it was not advertized nearly enough.

Improve the maps

The silent room, for example, was tiny speck on a gigantic map with no explanation next to it. Between displayed maps that were always busy and the LBF app that had so much potential but never worked, having access to physical maps could have been a game changer.

Introduce ‘Quiet Hours’

Many places now have ‘Quiet Hours’ and that is something I would like LBF management to consider. Saving the first hour of the day for people who struggle with sounds and crowds is an effective way to help, with at least 3 hours over the 3-day event when they will have peace of mind.

Even though there are ways to adapt and attend uproarious events like LBF, event organizers also have a responsibility to have systems in place to make sure nobody is left feeling like they don’t belong in these spaces just because they function a little differently. 

Hopefully, the change in leadership—with Emma Lowe becoming Director—will bring about improvement in accessibility to London Book Fair.

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