Lineup 2015

[kemosabe]

kaosmark2 am i right in thinking that is was you who volunteered for loads of festivals in the past?

[kaosmark2]

kaosmark2 am i right in thinking that is was you who volunteered for loads of festivals in the past?

I did 5 in 2013, so quite possibly.

[kaosmark2]

no offence to any jake bugg fans.

That's disappointing.

Masses of offence to Jake Bugg fans seems appropriate.

[kemosabe]

I did 5 in 2013, so quite possibly.

basically im trying to do loads this summer but noticed that Oxfam didn't work at all the ones I want to do. I was just wondering, who did you volunteer with and was it any good? (though if you worked all 5 with Oxfam this question is screwed)

[kaosmark2]

basically im trying to do loads this summer but noticed that Oxfam didn't work at all the ones I want to do. I was just wondering, who did you volunteer with and was it any good? (though if you worked all 5 with Oxfam this question is screwed)

I didn't work with Oxfam at all.

I worked with Hotbox for Reading and Latitude. Their deposit payment is pretty massive, and the shifts are long, but the experience was fairly good. The big plus I found for Hotbox was I got to request shift patterns that suited me, at least in terms of ranking preferences. Those 8 hour shifts are quite brutal though, and you don't get your deposit back until mid October. You get discounted meal tickets for a staff canteen where the money comes out of your deposit return which is quite useful though.

I've spoken to a number of people who've worked with Oxfam, and they enjoyed it. Comparatively, Oxfam required shorter shifts (5 hours I believe was typical), but more of them and you had less ability to choose.

At Secret Garden Party I worked for Green Stewards. DO NOT WORK FOR GREEN STEWARDS! (more details here). I was fucked over in terms of having to threaten Small Claims Court to get my deposit back, and had a horrible experience in terms of crap shifts during times of every single act I wanted to see, difficulty swapping, they don't even return your full deposit claiming an "admin fee". They're a shite scam company and you shouldn't consider working for them.

At EOTR I applied through the festival directly, but officially you're working for Wicked Events. This was by a long way the best experience of all of them. Part of that is the festival itself, but your deposit gets returned on the Monday, the shifts and staff and process are all much more pleasant, you can request role as well as some degree of shift preference, and generally it was phenomenal. Babyquack worked EOTR this year, so if you're considering any of the festivals they do (all smaller ones), you can get a more up-to-date experience from him. Almost all the food stalls at these festivals give you a discount when you show a stewarding wristband as well.

2000 Trees I just volunteered to the festival directly. It was another really nice experience, shift patterns are allocated upon arrival at the festival in terms of first-come-first-served. You get given a really crap sandwich in each shift, but it definitely helps. They have links to Y-Not and Arctangent with a number of the steward organisers overlapping between the festivals so I'd be surprised if working for either of those was particularly different.

I spoke to stewards from a number of other stewarding companies at Reading, Latitude and SGP as well, so I can offer second-hand reports on a fair few others. Festaff are supposedly a bit shit but only in a long shifts way. DC do some mid-major festivals and I think only require 6 hour shifts which is better than others.

My biggest tip would be that smaller festivals where you volunteer directly tend to be better experiences, particularly in terms of shifts and balance. At mid/big festivals the companies are almost all decent to work for but it's worth investigating regarding shifts/deposits/food. Of course, working for the same company at multiple festivals makes it a lot easier in terms of having to pay less in deposits overall.

Any particular questions you've got?

[dentalplan]

I wonder if the lack of Sonisphere will bring a bit of a heavier lineup to R+L like 2013 or to a lesser extent 2012. Some decent acts are vacant from the early festival announcements so far too.

[kaosmark2]

I wonder if the lack of Sonisphere will bring a bit of a heavier lineup to R+L like 2013 or to a lesser extent 2012. Some decent acts are vacant from the early festival announcements so far too.

Maybe without Sonisphere Alice in Chains will play any other festival.

[Gucci Piggy]

Maybe SOAD will headline.

[kaosmark2]

Maybe SOAD will headline.

Sonisphere?

[Gucci Piggy]

R&L.

[Gucci Piggy]

QUICK HAVE SOAD EVER PLAYED WITH SOAD!!

[kaosmark2]

SOAD/RATM coheadline.

[Gucci Piggy]

Gnarly.

[Yellow_Fellow]

SOAD/RATM coheadline.

I remember when this was the dream

[dentalplan]

Top bun

[Gucci Piggy]

Man bun

[kaosmark2]

Man bun

Keep your fetishes to yourself please.

[Gucci Piggy]

Keep your fetishes to yourself please.

Only when it's Jared Leto

[kaosmark2]

Only when it's Jared Leto

I can't imagine anyone having any problem with you keeping Jared Leto to yourself.

[Superunknown]

Massive Frank fan, would go to XFM in London if I had the money to get down there but I'll probably just go to the one here, in Manchester, Ben Howard's pretty good.

[rawaudioinput]

I also volunteered for a few festivals last year; for Isle of Wight I volunteered with Jolly Green Sherpas, it was back-breaking work carrying everyone's stuff from the car park to the campsite in a wheelbarrow over 8 hour shifts but you didn't have to work Friday evening/Saturday/Sunday and you didn't have to pay a deposit

Truck Festival was great, shifts were pretty short (4/5 hours if I remember correctly) the work was easy and you got a free hoodie at the end of the festival, again no deposit either

[kaosmark2]

Truck Festival was great, shifts were pretty short (4/5 hours if I remember correctly) the work was easy and you got a free hoodie at the end of the festival, again no deposit either

Good to hear. I'm planning to do Truck amidst a number of small festivals next summer.

[rawaudioinput]

I might be doing Truck again, if so I'll see you there

[kemosabe]

Im applying through Oxfam for Boomtown, Latitude, Leeds and Bestival and im looking to also volunteer at T in the Park, Download, V Fest and Isle Of Wight which Oxfam do not work at.

Also any other small festivals I can fit in!! Truck was one I was looking at so thats good

[kaosmark2]

Im applying through Oxfam for Boomtown, Latitude, Leeds and Bestival and im looking to also volunteer at T in the Park, Download, V Fest and Isle Of Wight which Oxfam do not work at.

Also any other small festivals I can fit in!! Truck was one I was looking at so thats good

Do you think there are likely to be acts you really want to see at all of these big festivals? As if not, I'm sure you'd have a substantially better time at small ones than you would at the likes of T/DL/V/IOW. The stewarding experience particularly is remarkably more enjoyable.