How to work at the festival prior to opening

[GodlikeYeezus]

Hi all, 

I am looking to volunteer rather than go as a punter next year to feel more involved. Looking to get the shifts done prior to the festival starting so I am wondering if anybody has any information on how to get involved with stage set up / rigging? 

Any advice is appreciated!

[Chimps]

And this is what is wrong with the festival. Volunteers doing a bit of work, I’m looking at you Oxfam, before gates, and then adding nothing during the actual Festival, free to enjoy it, and essentially taking a ticket from the traders pool, who are desperate for more staff. 

One of the main reasons you’re all waiting in queues for your food is because us food traders are deprived of the staff tickets we need. 
 

It’s taken me 8 years to go from 8 to 10 tickets. I need 14 to be able to man my stall successfully without killing my crew.

 

Huge number of food traders dropouts from last year. 
 

You will have noticed that the festival are no longer primarily interested in the look and feel of stalls. They are desperate to fill the place.

Traders close to me with 7/8 staff. Mental.

Caveat: All my crew are still alive, just.

 

[GodlikeYeezus]

A bit dramatic to say the least, I understand you’ve had a challenging trip but rigging in the blazing sun isn’t exactly the easiest job. Plus the stages in the set up rely on volunteers to be able to stay within budget. Finally I am taking annual leave to work in order to build the place I love and feel like I’ve contributed to it. I’d consider working a food van but just like in every day life, id prefer something hands on to being in a kitchen.

[Skip997]

11 hours ago, Chimps said:

And this is what is wrong with the festival. Volunteers doing a bit of work, I’m looking at you Oxfam, before gates, and then adding nothing during the actual Festival, free to enjoy it, and essentially taking a ticket from the traders pool, who are desperate for more staff.

That'll be the stewards (not all of whom are Oxfam) who also do shifts during the event, helping to keep the "punters" safe.

I imagine they were very important before, after and during the Elton set.

[balti-pie]

There's about 120 spots (out of 2500 total) Oxfam earlies, who are processing and admitting the vendors and stalls on the sun, mon and tues before it all opens up.

And THEY'RE whats wrong with glastonbury festival these days?!? 

[incident]

2 hours ago, balti-pie said:

There's about 120 spots (out of 2500 total) Oxfam earlies, who are processing and admitting the vendors and stalls on the sun, mon and tues before it all opens up.

And THEY'RE whats wrong with glastonbury festival these days?!? 

I'd point out that even if they reconfigured the shift patterns so that earlies didn't all finish before the festival properly starts - the same number of shifts would still need to be filled and so the same number of stewards would be needed total.

Ultimately, if the Festival wish to run 20ish gates, many of them 24/7 for about 9 straight days, then it's going to take a substantial amount of staff.

Ultimately - nearly every group working at the Festival feels that they need more wristbands than they get. Most of them are probably right. It's just how it is.

[Skip997]

1 minute ago, incident said:

Ultimately - nearly every group working at the Festival feels that they need more wristbands than they get. Most of them are probably right. It's just how it is.

True

We could probably do with another 6.

[clarkete]

14 hours ago, balti-pie said:

There's about 120 spots (out of 2500 total) Oxfam earlies, who are processing and admitting the vendors and stalls on the sun, mon and tues before it all opens up.

So that's about 4.8%, which as you say is a tiny minority. 

Plus obviously lots of folks who do bins, recycling, water etc who clearly have to be primarily working once punters are on site, 

@Chimpsafter 8 years hopefully you understand that there are two reasons (I'm aware of) that folks will volunteer - so that the charity receives a fee in return for their labour and so they can see some of the festival - eg some work 6am to midday (I think) doing bins whilst the festival is on - so from then on they add to the punter traffic, but what they've done in the morning is what's contributed to us all being there.

Recruiting thousands of volunteers who don't get to enjoy why of the festival would clearly be so much harder.