Volunteering with Oxfam

[waituntilspring]

In an effort to ease post Glastonbury blues I'm considering volunteering as an Oxfam steward for my first WOMAD...can anyone who has done it before tell me about their experiences? I'll be by myself so I guess that's the main thing I'm worried about. 

 

cheers!

[Spacey]

I have just today got a place. First time for me too volunteering and on my own so interested in the answers. By the way it was sold out but places came up this morning 

[waituntilspring]

Ah yeah, it's saying sold out. Shame. Have signed up for an alert if more spaces become available.

[jfaragher]

It's great - very different to Glastonbury though, as it's smaller and pretty sedate most of the time.  Also, if you've heard of more than 5 of the acts, you're doing better than me.

Volunteering wise - you need to keep an eye on the Oxfam website, as places may become available without warning, and will likely get snapped up.  It's a pretty easy one to volunteer at, with the caveat that you will do three 8 hour shifts over 4 days (rather than over 5/6 days like Glastonbury) which does impact on the stuff you can see. However, our crew camp is 10 minutes walk from anywhere on site, and getting around generally is pretty easy, so you can easily pop back to your tent / grab a snooze etc without it writing a day off.

It's a pretty friendly crew attend from Oxfam, and (shifts permitting) I'm hoping to organise a bit of a bar crawl / social on the Thursday night to help people make new friends.

[waituntilspring]

3 hours ago, jfaragher said:

It's great - very different to Glastonbury though, as it's smaller and pretty sedate most of the time.  Also, if you've heard of more than 5 of the acts, you're doing better than me.

Volunteering wise - you need to keep an eye on the Oxfam website, as places may become available without warning, and will likely get snapped up.  It's a pretty easy one to volunteer at, with the caveat that you will do three 8 hour shifts over 4 days (rather than over 5/6 days like Glastonbury) which does impact on the stuff you can see. However, our crew camp is 10 minutes walk from anywhere on site, and getting around generally is pretty easy, so you can easily pop back to your tent / grab a snooze etc without it writing a day off.

It's a pretty friendly crew attend from Oxfam, and (shifts permitting) I'm hoping to organise a bit of a bar crawl / social on the Thursday night to help people make new friends.

Thanks for the response! Sounds great. And yep, only heard of a small handful of the acts but would love to go. Really hoping a space comes up and will definitely be up for a bar crawl if one does

[waituntilspring]

I got in!

see you there. What time do most volunteers typically turn up to camp on the Wednesday?

[glasto-worker]

10 hours ago, waituntilspring said:

I got in!

see you there. What time do most volunteers typically turn up to camp on the Wednesday?

Can only speak about last year - here was the official instructions

You must arrive at WOMAD between 11am and 6pm on Wednesday 25th July 2018

but when we arrived there was many Campervan's - no way had they arrived  on the Wednesday and a good selection of tents ' already set up '

I know that some people work early but no way was all that mob working early.

Entry itself ' by car ' was very laid back so I would imagine most would have arrived on the Tuesday { or before }

seeing we were new Oxfam volunteers we arrived about noon on the Wednesday but if we were doing it this year we would arrive on the Tuesday.
 

[waituntilspring]

4 hours ago, glasto-worker said:

Can only speak about last year - here was the official instructions

You must arrive at WOMAD between 11am and 6pm on Wednesday 25th July 2018

but when we arrived there was many Campervan's - no way had they arrived  on the Wednesday and a good selection of tents ' already set up '

I know that some people work early but no way was all that mob working early.

Entry itself ' by car ' was very laid back so I would imagine most would have arrived on the Tuesday { or before }

seeing we were new Oxfam volunteers we arrived about noon on the Wednesday but if we were doing it this year we would arrive on the Tuesday.
 

Thanks for the info! I'm going tomorrow since that's what I've been told as a new volunteer and I'm working today. Looking at public transport options I'll be arriving around noon too, hopefully there'll still be plenty of decent camping spots. 

[incident]

I'm working there this year, and should be turning up at about 4ish tomorrow.

While I've not done WOMAD before, based on other festivals I'd expect that aside from anyone with an early shift the Tuesday arrivals seen last year would mostly be shop workers (who usually arrive a day or two before stewards as they have to set things up) and people who had special permission to do so - maybe because they worked at whatever event was on the previous weekend and were going straight from event to event for example (hence the high percentage of campervans).

Arriving early without clearing it with the office is usually frowned upon, as depending on festival basic facilities (ie toilets) may not be provided in the right places yet and accreditation may not have been arranged.

[glasto-worker]

8 hours ago, waituntilspring said:

Thanks for the info! I'm going tomorrow since that's what I've been told as a new volunteer and I'm working today. Looking at public transport options I'll be arriving around noon too, hopefully there'll still be plenty of decent camping spots. 

its big enough ' but there was a lot more people already there ' than we were expecting { 3/4's of the Campervan's was already there }

one weird thing is they did not have anyone on the crew camp site gate and as the traders were in the next field they were slipping in and using the toilets and the showers so at times 70% of the people in the queue had no connection at all with Oxfam - now I have no clue why they did not post anyone on that gate all I know is ' anyone could wander in and out '

its well away from ticket holders camping area and be sure to take a Compass with you as I did run into a few people who got lost late at night.

As you face the mess tent there is a good spot over to the far right that gives good shade { lots of trees } which you may need if stays so hot.

[waituntilspring]

12 hours ago, glasto-worker said:

its big enough ' but there was a lot more people already there ' than we were expecting { 3/4's of the Campervan's was already there }

one weird thing is they did not have anyone on the crew camp site gate and as the traders were in the next field they were slipping in and using the toilets and the showers so at times 70% of the people in the queue had no connection at all with Oxfam - now I have no clue why they did not post anyone on that gate all I know is ' anyone could wander in and out '

its well away from ticket holders camping area and be sure to take a Compass with you as I did run into a few people who got lost late at night.

As you face the mess tent there is a good spot over to the far right that gives good shade { lots of trees } which you may need if stays so hot.

Thanks! The shady camping spot sounds ideal. Hopefully there's still room for my tent there when I arrive.

[waituntilspring]

Anyone had their volunteer deposit back yet?