Volunteering 2024

[Pinhead]

Back in the old days when the ticket sale was after Oxfam it happened a lot I think, which led them to get wise over 'serial cancellers'. Not such a thing now though maybe.

[thewomble]

17 hours ago, Talcroft said:

If you get a Wednesday shift you are very, very lucky - not all bars are open Wed. That said, I got a Wed shift my first year and Thurs shift last year, so I've done very well with it. Even if you're not lucky, you can sometimes swap. It's upto your individual bar manager but most are pretty chill about it as long as your swap turns up. Just don't be off your face.

thanks for the info! think I prefer the sound of the shift times for Oxfam but will see what happens

[sedra]

Oxfam campaign slots still open for Glastonbury though you have to choose another festival too and complete application. 

[man_d]

On 1/28/2024 at 12:32 PM, Talcroft said:

 

You're right about the wristbands though. There was a rumour that a bag of wristbands had been knicked from the Shelter field too. That whole process was open to abuse and getting the wrong people in the wrong places. But not sure how it could be improved. 

 

That wasn't true. If it had been there would've been a load of volunteers who wouldn't have been able to get on site and we'd have heard about that if it'd happened

[incident]

3 minutes ago, man_d said:

That wasn't true. If it had been there would've been a load of volunteers who wouldn't have been able to get on site and we'd have heard about that if it'd happened

Would the wristbands have been QR coded? (I'm not sure what type of bands the Shelter crew get).

If they are, and they can identify which bag is missing (which *should* be the case), then cancelling the bands in question becomes pretty easy.

If they're not coded, or if they can't identify the bag, then yeah it's a massive headache for the festival that stretches way beyond Shelter. In 2016 Bestival lost a substantial number of wristbands a week or so before the Festival and it created absolute chaos - staff already on site had to be re-accredited, with a complete set of new bands procured at very short notice (and because of the short notice, they were ugly generic plastic affairs which pissed off people who like to collect their bands).

This is why sooner or later everything will move to QR (or NFC, or some other traceable system).

[stuie]

57 minutes ago, incident said:

Would the wristbands have been QR coded? (I'm not sure what type of bands the Shelter crew get).

If they are, and they can identify which bag is missing (which *should* be the case), then cancelling the bands in question becomes pretty easy.

If they're not coded, or if they can't identify the bag, then yeah it's a massive headache for the festival that stretches way beyond Shelter. In 2016 Bestival lost a substantial number of wristbands a week or so before the Festival and it created absolute chaos - staff already on site had to be re-accredited, with a complete set of new bands procured at very short notice (and because of the short notice, they were ugly generic plastic affairs which pissed off people who like to collect their bands).

This is why sooner or later everything will move to QR (or NFC, or some other traceable system).

Someone told me this was happening after the 2019 festival but then covid years happened.  Perhaps it will happen this year. 

[This_Fields_Good]

Interesting.  Oxfam site has blanked everything.

Wonder if there's gonna be something of a 'refresh' - I haven't seen a single Stewarding place anywhere all day...

[Talcroft]

21 hours ago, thekiwi said:

Is it likely you'll work only Friday, Saturday & Sunday night shifts? In that case doesn't seem much point doing it.

Possible but pretty unlikely. From the people I've met it seems they usually try to give you a Wed or Thur shift, then one early (11-7) and one late (7-3) Fri Sat Sun. 

Other thing to remember is you can be in the heart of it on the bars - easy to soak up the atmosphere and catch stuff on your break. Year I did Park bar I had lovely times on my breaks. No chance of 8 hours sat doing nothing if that's not what you want. But there are quieter bars too so depends what you're after. 

[deadponyclub]

They've just reopened the 'Manage your account' page on the Oxfam website so you can now work through all of the information required prior to the 1st of May deadline. I guess after May 1st is when we will find out what shifts we have....

Edited February 8 by deadponyclub

[jfaragher]

4 minutes ago, deadponyclub said:

They've just reopened the 'Manage your account' page on the Oxfam website so you can now work through all of the information required prior to the 1st of May deadline. I guess after May 1st is when we will find out what shifts we have....

You will find out your shifts one of two ways - either you'll get an email a couple of weeks before if you have early shifts (or a shift on Tuesday night, like a semi-early shift) and need to arrive on Saturday.

You'll find out they specifics of where and when on arrival, either on Saturday for the earlies, or Mon / Tues for the main shift.

[deadponyclub]

6 minutes ago, jfaragher said:

You will find out your shifts one of two ways - either you'll get an email a couple of weeks before if you have early shifts (or a shift on Tuesday night, like a semi-early shift) and need to arrive on Saturday.

You'll find out they specifics of where and when on arrival, either on Saturday for the earlies, or Mon / Tues for the main shift.

so if I select that I can do 'pre-festival shifts' does that mean that rather than arrive on the Tuesday (at the latest) I will need to arrive on the Saturday?

[incident]

1 minute ago, deadponyclub said:

so if I select that I can do 'pre-festival shifts' does that mean that rather than arrive on the Tuesday (at the latest) I will need to arrive on the Saturday?

Yes - but only if you're one of the very few who gets allocated pre-festival shifts. Which is something like a 1 in 10 chance.

[philipsteak]

1 minute ago, deadponyclub said:

so if I select that I can do 'pre-festival shifts' does that mean that rather than arrive on the Tuesday (at the latest) I will need to arrive on the Saturday?

Yep.

And you the do your 3 shifts before the main shifts start

[germanmon]

Is the 'friendship groups' a new thing on the Oxfam profile for this year? I recall seeing somewhere you could enter DoB and Name of shift partners last year to match yourselves up, but might be misremembering. Up to 5 allowed in a group now. 

[deadponyclub]

6 minutes ago, philipsteak said:

Yep.

And you the do your 3 shifts before the main shifts start

 

6 minutes ago, incident said:

Yes - but only if you're one of the very few who gets allocated pre-festival shifts. Which is something like a 1 in 10 chance.

thanks for confirming, I'm not able to arrive onsite until the Monday so will make sure I don't tick the pre-festival shifts box!

[philipsteak]

9 minutes ago, germanmon said:

Is the 'friendship groups' a new thing on the Oxfam profile for this year? I recall seeing somewhere you could enter DoB and Name of shift partners last year to match yourselves up, but might be misremembering. Up to 5 allowed in a group now. 

It's a new way of doing it. 

I suppose having people join a group means the details are correct so people get properly matched up and avoids spelling mistakes leading to people not being put together.

Also makes it clearer that they'll try to rota you at the same time but you might not be working together

[stuie]

Just done my profile and the sections for each festival I’m registered for this year.

I’ve added my van details for Glastonbury but not seen anything about paying the £35 pitch fee. I guess something will happen later… does anyone know? 

[incident]

25 minutes ago, stuie said:

Just done my profile and the sections for each festival I’m registered for this year.

I’ve added my van details for Glastonbury but not seen anything about paying the £35 pitch fee. I guess something will happen later… does anyone know? 

It said that the charge will be taken from the deposit refund - though it really should have said that on the page.

Still convinced that a load of people will miss this change.

[stuie]

16 minutes ago, incident said:

It said that the charge will be taken from the deposit refund - though it really should have said that on the page.

Still convinced that a load of people will miss this change.

Ah ok thank you… I didn’t see that anywhere! 😀

[MrZigster]

On 2/7/2024 at 6:46 PM, thekiwi said:

Is it likely you'll work only Friday, Saturday & Sunday night shifts? In that case doesn't seem much point doing it.

You're right. Personally there'd be no point in doing it if I were working during every headline set.

Don't think there's anything actually referred to as a "night" shift when working the bars. It's more like earlys, mids and lates (iirc).

In the four I've volunteered at I've always had one shift on either the Wednesday or Thursday. One shift that would clash with a headliner (so a late) Fri, Sat or Sun and one other early or mid shift Fri, Sat or Sun.

I know from speaking to others that this is not set in stone and may just be a coincidence but it suggests that they do try and spread things reasonably fairly.

 

[philipsteak]

11 hours ago, stuie said:

Just done my profile and the sections for each festival I’m registered for this year.

I’ve added my van details for Glastonbury but not seen anything about paying the £35 pitch fee. I guess something will happen later… does anyone know? 

I'd guess something will be sent to the people who selected campervan just to make it clear?

But who knows.

From memory the bus always had the cost next to it on the drop down I think.

I guess if people are taken by surprise then they can just say it was in the T&Cs and you ticked the box to say you'd read them. 

[amfy]

6 hours ago, MrZigster said:

You're right. Personally there'd be no point in doing it if I were working during every headline set.

Don't think there's anything actually referred to as a "night" shift when working the bars. It's more like earlys, mids and lates (iirc).

In the four I've volunteered at I've always had one shift on either the Wednesday or Thursday. One shift that would clash with a headliner (so a late) Fri, Sat or Sun and one other early or mid shift Fri, Sat or Sun.

I know from speaking to others that this is not set in stone and may just be a coincidence but it suggests that they do try and spread things reasonably fairly.

 

When I worked for Shelter I had my early shift on Friday (I think something like 11-7?), my late on Saturday (something like 8-2) and my mid on Sunday (something like 2-10).

I don’t think it could have been much worse but I did still enjoy the festival.
 

I remember chatting with Jeanie & she said my shift pattern was ‘rough’ and that they’d look to get anyone who was on that pattern, and came back, onto a better pattern the following year. I have no idea if that would have actually happened and even less if it would now!

[e_p]

What stage is bar work at? Are they recruiting, can you still apply? And when would you find out? 

[deadponyclub]

loads more festival slots now showing on the Oxfam page for stewarding.....

[thewomble]

32 minutes ago, deadponyclub said:

loads more festival slots now showing on the Oxfam page for stewarding.....

Just been having a look at this, a few have sold out again. Wish there was a few more that were less than 200 miles to me 😅 

Need to do some planning for next year if I'm going to try for 2 others. Whatever uses the least annual leave in combination with location!