Volunteering 2024

[agroovin]

Heads up guys I’ve just received my invite check your emails ♻️recycling crew 

[Leyrulion]

1 hour ago, balti-pie said:

Absolutely 100% from the Oxfam POV. There'll be ten of us at a gate for instance, with roles for probably six, and four people either helping with enquiries, getting stuck in and refreshing the people on the stated roles, or theyre stood around moaning that their feet hurt and inventing reasons why they cant finish their shifts 😄 

 

i'd far rather have a thing to do, and then i'll just get me head down and do it. It goes quicker!  Clockwatching does nobody any favours at all 

Oh don't forget at other fests when security are rota'd to the same position, even had the festival send staff before and you've got 8 people for a job that doesn't even really need to exist.

[stuie]

1 hour ago, balti-pie said:

Absolutely 100% from the Oxfam POV. There'll be ten of us at a gate for instance, with roles for probably six, and four people either helping with enquiries, getting stuck in and refreshing the people on the stated roles, or theyre stood around moaning that their feet hurt and inventing reasons why they cant finish their shifts 😄 

 

i'd far rather have a thing to do, and then i'll just get me head down and do it. It goes quicker!  Clockwatching does nobody any favours at all 

Not on my watch!  Rotation is key - not having someone sitting there moaning for 8 hours cos they are hanging off while the keen ones are up front and centre.  

12 minutes ago, Leyrulion said:

Oh don't forget at other fests when security are rota'd to the same position, even had the festival send staff before and you've got 8 people for a job that doesn't even really need to exist.

Well, the less said the better about being overstaffed and having pointless roles on a public forum, just before application time.

Every person and position is absolutely essential to the safe running of the festival 😉

 

[Leyrulion]

1 hour ago, stuie said:

Every person and position is absolutely essential to the safe running of the festival 😉

TBF once you realise they're staffing to the worst case scenario it feels a bit less redundant. If there was a need for an evacuation we'd suddenly feel very under staffed.

[Pinhead]

Anyone received a blank 'Priority' applications email from Oxfam indicating next week as opening (but with no date)?

[incident]

28 minutes ago, Pinhead said:

Anyone received a blank 'Priority' applications email from Oxfam indicating next week as opening (but with no date)?

Got the email (at 5:13 last night) and can see all the content.

The one I got mentions being eligible for a discounted deposit, aside from that it covers essentially the same ground as the one from a few weeks ago.

[philipsteak]

18 hours ago, balti-pie said:

Absolutely 100% from the Oxfam POV. There'll be ten of us at a gate for instance, with roles for probably six, and four people either helping with enquiries, getting stuck in and refreshing the people on the stated roles, or theyre stood around moaning that their feet hurt and inventing reasons why they cant finish their shifts 😄 

 

 

First year I supervised Sticklinch I had 6 stewards per shift. It was also the first year Oxfam had done it.

Last year I had two. And we still had nothing to do.

16 hours ago, stuie said:

 

Well, the less said the better about being overstaffed and having pointless roles on a public forum, just before application time.

Every person and position is absolutely essential to the safe running of the festival 😉

 

Tried explaining that to do many new stewards.  Without this seemingly pointless, sorry absolutely essential, role you possibly wouldn't be in the festival. 

[stuie]

1 hour ago, Pinhead said:

Anyone received a blank 'Priority' applications email from Oxfam indicating next week as opening (but with no date)?

Yes, got the email - it confirms mid-morning 25th Jan.

Other that that, it just says that Bearded Theory and 2000 Trees filled in the priority window last year, but they can't predict this years demand. 

[jfaragher]

17 hours ago, stuie said:

Well, the less said the better about being overstaffed and having pointless roles on a public forum, just before application time.

Every person and position is absolutely essential to the safe running of the festival 😉

Just because you don't have much to do a lot of the time, doesn't mean the role isn't needed.  Some positions are just there in case a problem arises (like an evacuation, or a medical), some are there just to keep an eye on stuff, some are there just so that there's someone visible to make customers feel more secure / have someone to ask questions.  

And yeah, stop complaining, even if your shift is boring, it's what got you into the festival innit.

[stuie]

3 minutes ago, jfaragher said:

Just because you don't have much to do a lot of the time, doesn't mean the role isn't needed.  Some positions are just there in case a problem arises (like an evacuation, or a medical), some are there just to keep an eye on stuff, some are there just so that there's someone visible to make customers feel more secure / have someone to ask questions.  

And yeah, stop complaining, even if your shift is boring, it's what got you into the festival innit.

I totally understand your point, but I don't mind the (usually) young ones who say they are bored - its the ones that will quite happily sit there doing nothing and let others run around the place that can be annoying!  

[toboggan]

I'm hoping to have a try at getting an Oxfam place this year, understand it may be quite tricky as have been keeping an eye on this chat for a while (thank you for all of the info!).

It's my first time trying for volunteering and will be out of the country on the 1st February in a different time zone (GMT -5)... from what I've gathered the time that the festival slots become available will be announced on the day, but just wanted to double check that the slots will be no earlier than 9am UK time? Just trying to plan my early wake up call on the day 🙃

[Leyrulion]

3 minutes ago, toboggan said:

I'm hoping to have a try at getting an Oxfam place this year, understand it may be quite tricky as have been keeping an eye on this chat for a while (thank you for all of the info!).

It's my first time trying for volunteering and will be out of the country on the 1st February in a different time zone (GMT -5)... from what I've gathered the time that the festival slots become available will be announced on the day, but just wanted to double check that the slots will be no earlier than 9am UK time? Just trying to plan my early wake up call on the day 🙃

It's usually been about 10-11am but they don't like to announce a specific time to give themselves some flexibility if something goes wrong (as has happened before)

[Pinhead]

5 hours ago, stuie said:

Yes, got the email - it confirms mid-morning 25th Jan.

Other that that, it just says that Bearded Theory and 2000 Trees filled in the priority window last year, but they can't predict this years demand. 

Nice one stuie / incident.

Surprised about BT as seem to recall at the briefing they did the usual roll call of who had done / not done BT b4 etc and we're loads, tho course they could all have done others with priority previously. Also thought they always kept a proportion back from priority even with a comparatively small numbers festival like BT.

[philipsteak]

1 minute ago, Pinhead said:

Nice one stuie / incident.

Surprised about BT as seem to recall at the briefing they did the usual roll call of who had done / not done BT b4 etc and we're loads, tho course they could all have done others with priority previously. Also thought they always kept a proportion back from priority even with a comparatively small numbers festival like BT.

There was one year where they stopped Glastonbury applications during priority but other than that they never have I don't think.

Then after that they changed how you got priority status because so many had it. And it also helped encourage people to do other festivals and agree to supervising.

Breaded Theory has gone in the first few minutes for years now. If I'm planning on doing it I always get that sorted before Glastonbury. It's usually full if you try to add it second

[incident]

5 minutes ago, philipsteak said:

There was one year where they stopped Glastonbury applications during priority but other than that they never have I don't think.

Yep that's how I remember it.

Has happened for Glastonbury in the one year where too many people had priority, but has never been a thing for other Festivals.

[Pinhead]

4 hours ago, stuie said:

I totally understand your point, but I don't mind the (usually) young ones who say they are bored - its the ones that will quite happily sit there doing nothing and let others run around the place that can be annoying!  

Oxfam festivals crew of old told me they try to fill as many positions as possible as every one counts as a fee to the charity at the end of the day regardless of whether they're really needed. As long as it's all agreed with the organisers b4 hand.

[Pinhead]

1 hour ago, incident said:

Yep that's how I remember it.

Has happened for Glastonbury in the one year where too many people had priority, but has never been a thing for other Festivals.

It feels like filling all the smaller festivals up with priority people is a bit mean but I gather they prize experience over turnover at the end of the day.

[stuie]

4 minutes ago, Pinhead said:

It feels like filling all the smaller festivals up with priority people is a bit mean but I gather they prize experience over turnover at the end of the day.

It all helps to recruit people for the ones that don’t fill as easily as more people try to get priority for next year! 

[stuie]

If any of you Oxfam peeps want to do a second festival this year, Wilderness is a nice one to consider. Stunning festival and location. I’ll be back this year for sure. They’ve just released an after movie:

 

[incident]

1 hour ago, stuie said:

It all helps to recruit people for the ones that don’t fill as easily as more people try to get priority for next year! 

And in terms of newcomers, let's be honest here Glastonbury is a hundred times more of a enticement than Bearded or Trees. Even though in reality, it's one of the less enjoyable ones to work (with Oxfam, at least) at.

Edited January 19 by incident

[incident]

2 minutes ago, stuie said:

If any of you Oxfam peeps want to do a second festival this year, Wilderness is a nice one to consider. Stunning festival and location. I’ll be back this year for sure. They’ve just released an after movie:

Are you able to make any comparisons to previous years?

My history with Wilderness is that I went in 2018, and loved it. One of my favourite ever festival weekends not named Glastonbury. Then in 2019, still enjoyed it, but felt like they'd cut budgets and it showed in places. 2021 felt like another step backwards with Festival Republic taking it over and from my perspective at least it felt like they made it a lot less quirky and more (for lack of a better word) industrialised, and introduced some changes on paper without really knowing the festival and therefore how those changes would work in practice. 2021 soured me a bit on going back - the weather didn't help much either - so would be interested what's changed since.

[stuie]

12 minutes ago, incident said:

Are you able to make any comparisons to previous years?

My history with Wilderness is that I went in 2018, and loved it. One of my favourite ever festival weekends not named Glastonbury. Then in 2019, still enjoyed it, but felt like they'd cut budgets and it showed in places. 2021 felt like another step backwards with Festival Republic taking it over and from my perspective at least it felt like they made it a lot less quirky and more (for lack of a better word) industrialised, and introduced some changes on paper without really knowing the festival and therefore how those changes would work in practice. 2021 soured me a bit on going back - the weather didn't help much either - so would be interested what's changed since.

I can’t I’m afraid - last year was my first year but I thought it was decent. My only grumbles are about the corporate stuff, sponsored bars and areas etc. Didn’t do any paid stuff either, like the banquets. From people I know who’ve been before they said this year was good compared to some less good ones but I don’t know.

From an Oxfam perspective, I love the way supervisors and stewards work closely with the festival zone managers, all on the same radio channels and working together. 

I went with little expectations of it just to do another festival in my van and use some annual leave and I met so many lovely people, Oxfam and punters. There are some entitled members of the population there though 😂

[incident]

9 minutes ago, stuie said:

I can’t I’m afraid - last year was my first year but I thought it was decent. My only grumbles are about the corporate stuff, sponsored bars and areas etc. Didn’t do any paid stuff either, like the banquets. From people I know who’ve been before they said this year was good compared to some less good ones but I don’t know.

From an Oxfam perspective, I love the way supervisors and stewards work closely with the festival zone managers, all on the same radio channels and working together. 

I went with little expectations of it just to do another festival in my van and use some annual leave and I met so many lovely people, Oxfam and punters. There are some entitled members of the population there though 😂

Cheers. Will think about giving it another go, though maybe waiting for the lineup before a final decision.

[The Red Telephone]

I’m thinking of doing Arctangent as my 2nd this year. Not my usual kind of music, but might be good to see something different. Think it’s only a 3-day festival, so only 2 shifts?

Anyone been?

[philipsteak]

I did Wilderness in 2021 so have nothing to compare it too but I didn't love it. I did enjoy it but that was probably more because it was only my 2nd post COVID festival and the first with all the gang back together. 

The Festival Republic stuff was a bit jarring as was all the paid stuff and sponsorship. And some of the punters were pretty entitled as you say. My shifts were fine, all 3 in accessible camping, but friends working in the main campsite had some pretty grim shifts dealing with some pretty grim people. And these were all very experienced stewards.

So based on that one year did quite enjoy it, well almost definitely never go back.