Festaff or My Cause?

[amanufan16]

So this summer will be my first time volunteering at festivals and I hope to do as many as I can, and so have signed up to a few different websites. However, both Festaff and My Cause are offering applications for BST Hyde Park and Boomtown which I wanna go to. I was wondering if anyone could give any advice as to who I sign up with?

[incident]

MyCause. Because they don't charge you as much to work for them, and because some of the profit goes to charity.

For Boomtown, you could also go with either Oxfam or Boomtown directly, and not pay an "admin fee" at all. Roles with them tend to be more central as well.

Edited January 22, 2020 by incident

[gfa]

For Boomtown, not sure who it was with but one company was awful this year if you ask in the main boomtown thread they can probably tell you which. The volunteers weren't allowed to do anything except work and be at their separate camp.

[incident]

15 minutes ago, gfa said:

For Boomtown, not sure who it was with but one company was awful this year if you ask in the main boomtown thread they can probably tell you which. The volunteers weren't allowed to do anything except work and be at their separate camp.

Mint / Freeman's bars. Think they were paid staff rather than volunteers, not that it excuses it.

Edited January 23, 2020 by incident

[evannn]

17 minutes ago, incident said:

Mint / Freeman's bars. Think they were paid staff rather than volunteers, not that it excuses it.

Think I volunteered with Mint for bestival some years back. We were allowed to see the festival when we weren't working, but they were pretty awful organisers - also do not recommend.

[ManLj]

I've worked with, not for, Festaff on several occasions and they've always been great. I can't vouch for MyCause.

Re: Boomtown i've seen several articles and facebook group comments all saying that a lot of the volunteer / paid positions aren't given access to the festival. I was at Boomtown last year and saw the separate staff campsites on the way in, they were outside the main perimeter fence of the festival and staff were apparently escorted in and out each day in time for shifts. The things I read referenced Mint, Freemans and Volunteer staff working like that so Boomtown might be a bit different to other festivals.

[Calebwa]

Anyone have any experience volunteering through MyCause on one day events like APE and BST? Do you get to see acts no matter what or will it literally be an all day shift?

[Trixiefest]

On 1/25/2020 at 3:25 AM, Calebwa said:

Anyone have any experience volunteering through MyCause on one day events like APE and BST? Do you get to see acts no matter what or will it literally be an all day shift?

I can only vouch for MyCause. You finish around 6pm, so you get to see at least 3 acts after that. It's great!

[Trixiefest]

MyCause UK are absolutely great. There's a good atmosphere and they just treat their volunteers well. Also, you get to volunteer for a charity of your choosing. It's well organised and they do try to make sure that you get to enjoy as much of the festival as you can. They are great with shifts at the weekend ones too, really try to make it fair for everyone so that you get to see some of the festival, not just work all of it.

At Boomtown, we had our own staff camping, so it's that bit safer (and not a bit of rubbish left behind).

 

[eFestivals]

5 hours ago, Trixiefest said:

MyCause UK ... you get to volunteer for a charity of your choosing.

according to the MyCause accounts, the average amount a charity gets from a volunteer's work at a festival is just £6 (and that's probably from a number of shifts).

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10662964/filing-history