Solo Shelter Volunteers

[marathonsteve]

13 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

Do you know roughly what time the coaches leave on the Tuesday?

We started the coach journey from King X in London. The coaches didn't all go at once but at intervals throughout the morning. We had a stop along the way.

[amfy]

On 3/29/2019 at 11:36 AM, gooner1990 said:

Does anyone know what time the coach leaves Bristol on the Tuesday? (or when it has done in previous years)

Last time it was quite early but I asked whether the could do a slightly later one to enable me to get an off peak fare on the train from Birmingham and they did! I pointed out that the Bristol coach could have people coming from the midlands, Wales and Cornwall and we might need a bit longer to get there.

Bear that in mind if the coach times don’t work for you when they come out. They are reasonable and flexible if you communicate any difficulties.

[amfy]

For those worried about adding up I found that as long as I could give an approximate figure, most people were happy to hand over notes and get the exact figure when I came back with their change!

So I’d try to add it as I went along and then end up saying ‘That’s something just under £25’ & they’d hand me £25 or £30 & then I’d go to the till, add it up, come back with their change and say ‘It was £24.40’ or whatever. 

Some people would just give me a look that said ‘Not good enough’ and with those, I’d either go and double check with the till or re-add in my head to get it exactly......but most people were genuinely fine with being given a rough figure in the first instance.....& a lot of the time I could add exactly, it was just when rounds were big with a wide range of drinks that I’d get a bit lost. When it gets very busy your head can stop working for a while! It’s OK.

When I think about it - if I go to a festival bar as a customer for a certain number of drinks, I’ve got in my head that I’m going to spend about £4-5 per person and I’m probably not that arsed about the specifics of the odd 50p. I think most people are like that. Even so - one of the things that really surprised me on the Shelter bars is how relaxed so many people are about money at the festival. Some rounds were ridiculously expensive, especially those who were going for Pimms & Prosecco - they just didn’t care how much it was at all! The sheer amount of money that goes through those bars is astounding!

Its definitely true that the most important thing is not serving people who are underage or already very plastered. You can literally be arrested for this. So - don’t be afraid to flatter people - I asked one woman for ID who turned out to be 32! She was delighted! I also got a young couple on acid to walk up and down in a straight line 4 times which was hilarious!

 

 

[gooner1990]

37 minutes ago, amfy said:

Last time it was quite early but I asked whether the could do a slightly later one to enable me to get an off peak fare on the train from Birmingham and they did! I pointed out that the Bristol coach could have people coming from the midlands, Wales and Cornwall and we might need a bit longer to get there.

Bear that in mind if the coach times don’t work for you when they come out. They are reasonable and flexible if you communicate any difficulties.

Ok thanks!

I guess I’ll have to see what’s offered then!

any idea when you get all the full info from them?

[marathonsteve]

When we worked for Shelter we had to challenge a certain number of people that looked under age per shift and put the times down that we did it in a book near the bar counter.

[amfy]

5 hours ago, marathonsteve said:

When we worked for Shelter we had to challenge a certain number of people that looked under age per shift and put the times down that we did it in a book near the bar counter.

Yes - we were doing that in 2017. It was a right pain because the pen kept going missing!

[marathonsteve]

I have to say that although a serious thing some people were very flattered when I challenged them

[MrZigster]

On 29 March 2019 at 11:36 AM, gooner1990 said:

Does anyone know what time the coach leaves Bristol on the Tuesday? (or when it has done in previous years)

Was 10am in 2016.

[gooner1990]

22 minutes ago, MrZigster said:

Was 10am in 2016.

Cheers mate, is the departure point Bristol Coach station?

[marathonsteve]

Enjoy the total experience 

[gooner1990]

Anyone know when the full details get emailed out?

[MrZigster]

20 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

Cheers mate, is the departure point Bristol Coach station?

Address given is: 75  Millennium Square, Canons Way, BS1 5DB.

In 2016 I got the below email on 9th May from Avalon Events (along with a Glastonbury Survival Guide). This may answer a lot of questions but does not imply a timescale for this year. Everything usually runs on Glastonbury time for this one.

Dear Volunteer,

 

Thank you for agreeing to work with Avalon Bars and Events at Glastonbury! I’m Adele, and I will be your main contact at Avalon. This is the first email in the lead up to what will no doubt be another amazing festival. There will be a few more before we get on site – all of which will contain important information so please take the time to read them carefully and give us any details we need. This will make all of our lives much easier and make your time at Glastonbury all the more fun! Please addstaffing@avalonevents.co.uk to email address books, to avoid future emails going into your junk boxes!

 

So in this email we require information from you about five things:

1.       Transport to the festival site – Book your place on a coach.

2.       Volunteer briefings;  which training session will you be attending

3.       The names of your requested shift partners

4.       Next of Kin details and your telephone number

5.       Dietary requirements

 

All this info is requested NO LATER 16^th of May!

 

Transport to site

 

Choose your coach

Avalon is providing free transport on Tuesday 21st June 2016 to Glastonbury from London, Sheffield and Bristol. All volunteers are required to use the Avalon organised coaches to get to Glastonbury.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                               

Departure Locations	Time	Mark ‘Yes’ to choose your coach
LONDON: York Way, Kings Cross, N1 9AA	9am
	10am
	11am
	12pm
	1pm
BRISTOL: 75  Millennium Square, Canons Way, BS1 5DB	10am
SHEFFIELD: The Hubs, Paternoster Row, S1 2QQ	10am

 

 

 

The Avalon staff coaches will be booked to travel back from the festival site on Monday morning. Please be aware that it can take a very long time to get off site due to the public exiting the campsites and the heavy traffic around the festival site and surrounding area. Traffic conditions are out of our control and we cannot guarantee when you will be able to leave site, or arrive at the coach drop-off point that you have chosen for a specific time.

 

We will be operating, a ticketed system for returning coaches. Coaches will start arriving from 9am. Once you are all packed and ready to go, Shelter representatives will be in the catering tent handing out colour coded tickets in numerical order. You will then be called to your coaches in the same numerical order. 1^st up and ready, get to be on the 1^st coaches out!

 

 

Volunteer Training Sessions

 

Choose your training session

If you are a newbie to us, we need to get you ‘Avalon Certified’. Short training sessions (90 mins max!) are held in advance for you to become just that. You will learn everything you need to become awesome behind the bar! We have organised several sessions in London and one big one in Sheffield. The London sessions are held at the Shelter‘s Head Office, (88 Old Street, EC1V 9HU). The Sheffield session is being held at the Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus, Howard Street, S1 1WB.

 

Date	Time	Tick to reserve a place
Saturday 28thMay LONDON	10am
Saturday 28thMay LONDON	12pm
Saturday 28thMay LONDON	2pm
Saturday 28thMay LONDON	4pm
Wednesday 1stJune LONDON	7pm
Wednesday 8thJune LONDON	7pm
Saturday 4thJune SHEFFIELD	1pm

If these training sessions are difficult for you to attend, please get in touch with me straight away, so we can see what we can do!

 

 

 

Shift Partners

 

Now is the time for you to let us know who you want to work with

You can add up to 5 shift partners, to create a shift partner group of up to 6, including yourself.

All members of the shift partner group must list all the other members of the group's full names for the group to be matched. If anyone leaves anyone's name out the group will not be matched and you will not be rota’d on shift together. For operational reasons, we cannot accept any shift partner groups larger than 6. Therefore, the maximum shift partner group you can select is you, plus 5 others. A shift partner group can be as little as 2 people. The same applies - you must both put each other's name here in order to be matched as a group.

Please arrange your shift partner groups before you reply to this email - make sure you write all your shift partner's names below.

 

1.

 

2.

 

3.

 

4.

 

5.

 

 

 

 

Stuff We Need To Know From You!

 

Your Telephone Number:

 

Next of Kin or Emergency Contact

 

Their Name:

 

Their Telephone Number:

 

Dietary Requirements

 

Vegetarian? Vegan? Gluten free? Tell us here, so we can tell our caterers:

 

 

 

Finally, I’ve attached to this email our Glastonbury Survival Guide which has lots of useful information in it about the job you will be doing on site and how to make your Glastonbury camping experience a comfortable and enjoyable one! Please read it carefully. The Shelter Festival Volunteering FAQs website is also very useful to answer queries regarding the role.     http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_involved/festival_volunteering/festival_faq

 

 

That’s it for the moment! Thanks again for agreeing to work with us; it’s going to be a lot of fun! I will be in contact again in the next week or so with more information. Any queries in the meantime please do not hesitate to contact me!

 

 

All the best,

 

 

Adele Dunstan

Event Staffing Manager

 

 

Avalon Bars and Events Limited

 

T: 0208 761 8424

E: staffing@Avalonevents.co.uk

[gooner1990]

2 hours ago, MrZigster said:

Address given is: 75  Millennium Square, Canons Way, BS1 5DB.

In 2016 I got the below email on 9th May from Avalon Events (along with a Glastonbury Survival Guide). This may answer a lot of questions but does not imply a timescale for this year. Everything usually runs on Glastonbury time for this one.

 

Brilliant, thanks Mr Zigster.

I’ll have to call them and ask what the likely training date is so I can make suitable arrangements if they announce it that late!

[MrZigster]

2 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

Brilliant, thanks Mr Zigster.

I’ll have to call them and ask what the likely training date is so I can make suitable arrangements if they announce it that late!

Quite. They do cut it fine (like I said, Glastonbury time).

Personally, I officially have to give my real world work six weeks notice if I want to book a day off. Avalon's from email to training date timescale does not give me that leeway. I count myself lucky that my nearest is London and so I get a choice of days. I can swap shifts but that requires an inordinate amount of luck (I was only able to be home for Shelter email time last week 'cause of a random meeting the shift before. So the gods are being good to me this year so far). There's a good chance the only training session I'll be able to make will be after a night shift or something equally hellish (if at all).

I'm a bit cross at having to do training for a third time. I thought I was already "Avalon Certified". If I can make a day I will go for it. Them's the employers. Them's the rules this year and all that  But if I cannot possibly make it due to real world job commitments I will be trying to make my point that I should still be able to go!

As others have said, both Shelter and Avalon have always been extremely reasonable regarding personal circumstance. Also my experience. Turned up to eleven. I've exchanged dozens of emails with them over the years. They're nothing but helpful and reasonable.

I don't know your work situation but you mentioned going on holiday. As long as you have an email device and access to t'net wherever you may be roaming I'm sure things will work out.

Maybe call/email them now and get a heads up?

Oh, and I'm intrigued to know...

Is it Bristol Bus Station, Train Station or local Shelter office for that Bristol pick up point?

[MrZigster]

On 31 March 2019 at 9:12 AM, Rob0510 said:

Thanks so much for all this information it is getting me really excited already. My partner has a ticket for the festival so with regards to camping is there ever an exception where she would be able to stay on camp in my tent? Or if I would be allowed to stay with her on site?

The crew camp site has specific wristbands and good guard dogs (I meant stewards. Good stewards (I hate the modern job title "Security")).

Personally I have never tried to get a non wristbanded person past said gate. It maybe worth a try. It doesn't sound unreasonable given your circumstance.

Way easier for you though to not go back to camp and just shack up with your partner on site for the night (or the whole festival).

As long as you turn up for your allotted shifts . That's the point.

[glasto-worker]

On 3/31/2019 at 9:12 AM, Rob0510 said:

Thanks so much for all this information it is getting me really excited already. My partner has a ticket for the festival so with regards to camping is there ever an exception where she would be able to stay on camp in my tent? Or if I would be allowed to stay with her on site? 

its a very risky business ' without permission '

4 hours ago, MrZigster said:

The crew camp site has specific wristbands and good guard dogs (I meant stewards. Good stewards (I hate the modern job title "Security")).

Personally I have never tried to get a non wristbanded person past said gate. It maybe worth a try. It doesn't sound unreasonable given your circumstance.

well there is a good reason why they don't want strangers floating about in the crew campsite but I will not go into them as Avalon would not like me to.

my advice is ' just stick to the rules ' as after all # you did agree to them all when you applied # 

the T&C state

'In the event that any volunteer is unable to comply with these guidelines or otherwise fails to meet the expectations set out in these guidelines, Avalon Bars and Shelter reserve the right to remove both Avalon Bars and Glastonbury Festival wristbands, and/or withdraw coach travel home. Your deposit will also be withheld by Shelter.'

'You must camp in the Avalon Bars staff campsite'

Avalon Bars and Shelter reserve the right to stand down from shift and/or remove from site any volunteer who they believe have failed to meet reasonable expectations set out in these guidelines. Our decision in these circumstances will be final.

------------

sure some people will chance their arm but its a very risky business ' without permission '

Edited April 2, 2019 by glasto-worker

[Rob0510]

17 hours ago, MrZigster said:

Address given is: 75  Millennium Square, Canons Way, BS1 5DB.

In 2016 I got the below email on 9th May from Avalon Events (along with a Glastonbury Survival Guide). This may answer a lot of questions but does not imply a timescale for this year. Everything usually runs on Glastonbury time for this one.

 

Does anyone have a copy of the Glastonbury survival guide for abit of light reading?

[gooner1990]

Have spoken to Shelter this afternoon and they were being a bit vague.

They said the email (which I assume will be this years version of what Mr Zigster posted above) will ‘probably be out within the next two weeks’

They also said they hadn’t sorted ipuf exactly what date/weekend it would be.

I did ask if I booked my holiday then it turned out I couldn’t do the training on the specified dates would I be able to do it at another date,  they said I wouldn’t be able to attend the festival.

So I’m going to hold off booking anything until that email arrives, and if it doesn’t I’ll start chasing them in two weeks time.

 

[Gowerjack]

Let's bump an old thread!

 

I'm doing my 1st solo volunteering for Shelter this year be good to chat to anyone else doing the same!

 

Steve