Volunteering 2023

[Johnnyseven]

53 minutes ago, incident said:

That software isn't necessarily available to everyone though, at least not everyone at work.

Plenty people have jobs where they're not in front of a computer constantly. Even amongst those that are, some IT departments will lock down what browsers/extensions can be used.

You can set Distill up via their website without downloading the browser extension, download the app to your phone and set the web page to monitor via your phone. If you've only got a work phone that won't let you download apps and zero access to the internet outside of a work laptop or PC though that could be a problem.   

[stuie]

36 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

This is true, I doubt very many are doing it for Oxfam. Most will be using it as a way in.

Depends what you mean.  Oxfam is my preferred way in.  I had a ticket deposit this year and didn't pay the balance once I'd got a confirmed place with Oxfam.

32 minutes ago, This_Fields_Good said:

Cos quite frankly, if you can see more, do more, drink more, etc. on a full ticket then why the Hell not ?!?

Lots of reasons:

full week on the farm, monday and tuesday night parties, access to all the crew bars all week, secure camping, hot showers, better toilets, free food, meeting new people, no entry queue, parking right next to your campsite, access to phone chargers, breaking up your excessive consumption by working, being a part of the festival team and helping to make the party happen.

...off the top of my head!

[chestwig]

12 minutes ago, golden egg said:

Tip for those using Distill: set up a 5 second reminder as normal but then duplicate it 5/6 times and toggle on/off until they’re staggered. You then have one every second which makes all the difference when they disappear instantly. Worked for me today - I was starting to get pretty disillusioned with it all thinking I wouldn’t get a spot as I don’t work inside at a laptop. There was also definitely a pattern today of them appearing in the hour or half hour mark all afternoon. Good luck to whoever’s still trying. 

I think I am going to try and stick to a method of check every half an hour

 

[This_Fields_Good]

13 minutes ago, stuie said:

Lots of reasons:

full week on the farm, monday and tuesday night parties, access to all the crew bars all week, secure camping, hot showers, better toilets, free food, meeting new people, no entry queue, parking right next to your campsite, access to phone chargers, breaking up your excessive consumption by working, being a part of the festival team and helping to make the party happen.

...off the top of my head!

Indeed - Lots of decent enough reasons that I hadn't thought of...
...and once I've worked this festival I may agree with most of them.  Please don't judge me, but I've never actually had a hot shower at Glastonbury before.

 

16 minutes ago, stuie said:

Depends what you mean.  Oxfam is my preferred way in.  I had a ticket deposit this year and didn't pay the balance once I'd got a confirmed place with Oxfam.

But I have put a declaration in my will that if I die before the balance payment date, the estate is still to pay it, just in case reincarnation turns out to be a thing.

[oakdown]

24 minutes ago, stuie said:

Depends what you mean.  Oxfam is my preferred way in.  I had a ticket deposit this year and didn't pay the balance once I'd got a confirmed place with Oxfam.

Lots of reasons:

full week on the farm, monday and tuesday night parties, access to all the crew bars all week, secure camping, hot showers, better toilets, free food, meeting new people, no entry queue, parking right next to your campsite, access to phone chargers, breaking up your excessive consumption by working, being a part of the festival team and helping to make the party happen.

...off the top of my head!

Plus the EPO wristband designs tend to be nicer than the GA ones 😉

[Joey01]

Most likely this has already been answered but as I've finally got round to adding this 'Distill' that everybody keeps going on about, I was wondering if you can (and if so how) tailor the notifications to just Glastonbury on the drop down box? I just got a notification that Bearded Theory had sold out - is this normal - or is there a way of setting it up so I don't get a notification for every festival on the drop down list?

[Johnnyseven]

10 minutes ago, Joey01 said:

Most likely this has already been answered but as I've finally got round to adding this 'Distill' that everybody keeps going on about, I was wondering if you can (and if so how) tailor the notifications to just Glastonbury on the drop down box? I just got a notification that Bearded Theory had sold out - is this normal - or is there a way of setting it up so I don't get a notification for every festival on the drop down list?

Not sure you can, unless there's some script you can put in the box that selects the element you want to monitor that tells it just to monitor the Glastonbury - Sold out for changes - that's beyond me though. There was another web checker I used that could do it but it couldn't handle the CAPTCHA thingy.

Edited May 9, 2023 by Johnnyseven

[Johnnyseven]

30 minutes ago, Johnnyseven said:

Not sure you can, unless there's some script you can put in the box that selects the element you want to monitor that tells it just to monitor the Glastonbury - Sold out for changes - that's beyond me though. There was another web checker I used that could do it but it couldn't handle the CAPTCHA thingy.

Just had another look, you could try adding in a condition for text that does not have Glastonbury sold out - no idea if it'll work though.

[stuie]

1 hour ago, Joey01 said:

Most likely this has already been answered but as I've finally got round to adding this 'Distill' that everybody keeps going on about, I was wondering if you can (and if so how) tailor the notifications to just Glastonbury on the drop down box? I just got a notification that Bearded Theory had sold out - is this normal - or is there a way of setting it up so I don't get a notification for every festival on the drop down list?

As you are unable to manipulate the conditions to test such a set up, I’d keep it simple. If you know it’s alerting you when Bearded comes up, that confirms you’ll be notified of all changes. If you make it more complicated, there’s a chance it won’t work! 

[faymondo]

1 hour ago, Joey01 said:

Most likely this has already been answered but as I've finally got round to adding this 'Distill' that everybody keeps going on about, I was wondering if you can (and if so how) tailor the notifications to just Glastonbury on the drop down box? I just got a notification that Bearded Theory had sold out - is this normal - or is there a way of setting it up so I don't get a notification for every festival on the drop down list?

The other ones keep you on your toes !! Had a few pings before and I had no skin in the game. My niece would now like to volunteer so I am back in the game. Like a "ping" addict. I recall some going off the other night about 1am received via my watch buzzing. It woke me up so of course I checked just in case !! 

[balti-pie]

1 hour ago, This_Fields_Good said:

Please don't judge me, but I've never actually had a hot shower at Glastonbury before

It feels amazing at the time, but to be honest it makes everyone else much more noticeably stinkier by comparison.
 

Plus it takes away the unimpeachable, incomparable bliss of the Monday shower when you’re back at home 🤣 in summary: showers at festival, meh 

[G1T]

1 hour ago, stuie said:

Depends what you mean.  Oxfam is my preferred way in.  I had a ticket deposit this year and didn't pay the balance once I'd got a confirmed place with Oxfam.

Lots of reasons:

full week on the farm, monday and tuesday night parties, access to all the crew bars all week, secure camping, hot showers, better toilets, free food, meeting new people, no entry queue, parking right next to your campsite, access to phone chargers, breaking up your excessive consumption by working, being a part of the festival team and helping to make the party happen.

...off the top of my head!

Agree with all of that, but for me, there's also something so fun about adding in interesting work with interesting people to your festival experience, rather than just rushing between stages. The festival's got an awesome work culture at its heart, and I love experiencing that. Through a set of circumstances, I'm not doing my usual crew job this year, but have ended up with a ticket that would pretty much give me five days of my own time for the entire festival. Chatting to another crew friend last night though, I mentioned how odd this felt, and he's suggested I come and do some work onsite with his crew, in return for basically nothing as my ticket and so forth is already sorted. I'm seriously considering it.

It's the sort of thing I could never even slightly understand until I did work there. Back in the day there was no way I'd want to work and miss things. After 15 years of working there though, the idea of just being there without any work to do feels unright.

[Jay Pee]

I also have to mention (again) that volunteering opens a door and can be quite life changing.

I first volunteered with Wateraid a few years ago as a means to an end (festival entry) and am now on their speaker network and give talks in primary schools about the fantastic work the charity does around the globe.

One of the greatest highs is volunteering your time and helping people who need it.

[balti-pie]

Like most, I fell into volunteering due to not getting a ticket for 2019 - but before then I always fancied being part of it, and suspected that I’d fall into working my way there at some point.
Now I’m in the oxfam eco system and able to keep going year on year with fairly minimal fuss it’s great, and easily worth a few hours of volunteering during the fest. I’m never there for the lineup anyways, I like much heavier stuff that’s much under represented, so I like to go for basically all of the non musical reasons. Adding on raising money for a decent charity is another good thing that comes out of an all round very rewarding experience. 

[Crazyfool01]

13 minutes ago, Jay Pee said:

I also have to mention (again) that volunteering opens a door and can be quite life changing.

I first volunteered with Wateraid a few years ago as a means to an end (festival entry) and am now on their speaker network and give talks in primary schools about the fantastic work the charity does around the globe.

One of the greatest highs is volunteering your time and helping people who need it.

Do you know anyone called glyn ? 

[amfy]

3 hours ago, This_Fields_Good said:

Hear, hear - You maybe see it more on the FB Oxfam page, but there are some viewpoints I consider a little smug about volunteering.

I tried to buy a ticket, failed twice, and now I'll work the festival for the first time...

And even if I enjoy working it, there's every chance I may try to buy a ticket for next year.

Cos quite frankly, if you can see more, do more, drink more, etc. on a full ticket then why the Hell not ?!?

The key word here are ‘there’s every chance’ 

Every time I volunteer at a festival now I am a little anxious about what I’ll miss, but if I don’t volunteer, I know what I’ll miss.

[March Hare]

3 hours ago, philipsteak said:

You and most people. And totally reasonable it is too.

There's a fairly sizable number of people (me included) who don't bother trying for tickets and just do it this way now. Not because they want to raise money for Oxfam (it's not like they need me, there's plenty would take my place) but who see it as the best way in. I'm now guaranteed a place for as long as I want, no stress of trying to get a ticket, I've got a great group of friends who do it this way and the positives outway the negatives. 

Then there's those other ones. You know the ones. The Facebook group ones. I swear some of them barely go in to the festival except for shifts.

“You know the ones” made me chuckle 😂

[Jay Pee]

29 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

Do you know anyone called glyn ? 

I do but probably will get to know him even more during this festival. Glyn does a shift for Wateraid 

[Crazyfool01]

5 minutes ago, Jay Pee said:

I do but probably will get to know him even more during this festival. Glyn does a shift for Wateraid 

he does hes a twitter contact ..... i had a quick chat with him last year and hopefully catching him for a cider this 🙂 

[Jay Pee]

Just now, Crazyfool01 said:

he does hes a twitter contact ..... i had a quick chat with him last year and hopefully catching him for a cider this 🙂 

I will join you!

[dondo]

2 hours ago, This_Fields_Good said:

 Please don't judge me, but I've never actually had a hot shower at Glastonbury before.

Before I volunteered I'd never showered at the festival but given I'm recycling crew it can be mucky work they're a necessity for me. 

[Crazyfool01]

4 minutes ago, Jay Pee said:

I will join you!

excellent ... will try and get @vintagelaureate to join us 🙂 

[Jay Pee]

12 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

excellent ... will try and get @vintagelaureate to join us 🙂 

He has a ticket then? I will message him later / soon. Just pissing about at my mum's 

[Crazyfool01]

Just now, Jay Pee said:

He has a ticket then? I will message him later / soon. Just pissing about at my mum's 

he does,  bus one  ... arriving thursday 

[chestwig]

Everyone primed for another day of refresh nonsense!