Volunteering 2025

[Leyrulion]

14 hours ago, Old_Johno said:

The main downer for wateraid is you do 4 shifts instead of 3 (6 hours instead of 8), and realistically you’re going to want a shower after cleaning toilets for 6 hours so can eat up quite a lot of time, once you’ve gone back to the staff camp. 

 

On the other hand stewarding can be miles away from anything, so if you can make peace with not showering after cleaning then wateraid might be better for you.

 

12 hours ago, SPW said:

 

 

Cheers both. Yeah I noticed the 4 shorter shifts and would prefer to do less but longer shifts if given a choice. But in any event, either is prob a bit of a long shot this time round so will keep an eye on both for now and see what's what in the New Yr and how the non-festival volunteering progresses as that may sway what's the best option for me.  Generally, I am accepting of it being a different festival experience and not necessarily being able to do/see all I'd ordinarily want to. 

 

p.s. as for the post shift showering, that depends on what I would be missing 😃. 

Key thing with wateraid is you start and end your shift from the camp site so travel time to the toilet sets that you're cleaning counts. 

So that probably eats up a good 30-45 minutes of the shift. 

[Old_Johno]

4 hours ago, Leyrulion said:

 

Key thing with wateraid is you start and end your shift from the camp site so travel time to the toilet sets that you're cleaning counts. 

So that probably eats up a good 30-45 minutes of the shift. 

It’s good for eating up time on shift, bad if you wanted to see some stuff before your shift, then walk 45 mins back to camp, then 45 minutes back to the toilets, then back out again. 

[Johnnyseven]

6 hours ago, Leyrulion said:

 

Key thing with wateraid is you start and end your shift from the camp site so travel time to the toilet sets that you're cleaning counts. 

So that probably eats up a good 30-45 minutes of the shift. 

 

I've not done Wateraid but a mate did it the year I did Oxfam and it seemed much more cushy. The above and the fact that you get to end your shift once you've covered the allotted bogs to clean. Plus no overnight shifts.  

[stuie]

2 minutes ago, Johnnyseven said:

I've not done Wateraid but a mate did it the year I did Oxfam and it seemed much more cushy. The above and the fact that you get to end your shift once you've covered the allotted bogs to clean. Plus no overnight shifts.  

I've not done WaterAid but it's swings and roundabouts really, an extra shift but for 2 hours less each shift might work for some - as does not having a nightshift.  But for me, 8 hours working during the night when I'm not missing stuff - that's just fine.*

 

*yes yes at Glasto, you're always missing some stuff! 

 

[Johnnyseven]

9 minutes ago, stuie said:

I've not done WaterAid but it's swings and roundabouts really, an extra shift but for 2 hours less each shift might work for some - as does not having a nightshift.  But for me, 8 hours working during the night when I'm not missing stuff - that's just fine.*

 

*yes yes at Glasto, you're always missing some stuff! 

 

 

I'm not complaining about Oxfam volunteering but i'd be glad to lose the night shift and swap for 4 shorter shifts when i'm actually doing something that passes the time. My night shift attending a 'pedestrian crossing' outside the fence with perhaps 4 vehicles passing in 8 hours was a real struggle.

[efcfanwirral]

12 minutes ago, stuie said:

I've not done WaterAid but it's swings and roundabouts really, an extra shift but for 2 hours less each shift might work for some - as does not having a nightshift.  But for me, 8 hours working during the night when I'm not missing stuff - that's just fine.*

 

*yes yes at Glasto, you're always missing some stuff! 

 

yeah I'm the same, my night shift was Thursday into Friday, and I was in the field for Squeeze at Midday, and did a whole day of music. Happy to push through in that situation

[Aragorn]

In case you are not aware - for those employed directory for the Recycling Crew - you should have an email requesting you to complete something.

[efcfanwirral]

Oxfam priority confirmation just came through. Tuesday 4th February for us

 

Tuesday 11th for the public stewarding places, so anyone looking for that block the morning out if you can

Edited Wednesday at 04:33 PM by efcfanwirral

[philipsteak]

Hadn't seen the email so had a brief thought of "have I lost priority" when 7 saw your comment, even though I absolutely know I haven't, but a quick check and the email is there.

[deadponyclub]

Happy to help out anyone who wants assistance on the 11th trying to get their volunteering spot, I've had lots of success in previous years. Private message me if you want some help...

[philipsteak]

Thought this bit of the email was interesting

 

Our next area of focus is accessibility. We’re working on making it easier to request reasonable adjustments and providing clearer information on what we can offer at each festival. Stay tuned for updates on these changes soon. 

 

after reading the frankly shocking account from the person on here who had a sh*t time dealing with them (sorry, I can't remember who it was). Hopefully proper meaningful change.

[efcfanwirral]

26 minutes ago, philipsteak said:

Thought this bit of the email was interesting

 

Our next area of focus is accessibility. We’re working on making it easier to request reasonable adjustments and providing clearer information on what we can offer at each festival. Stay tuned for updates on these changes soon. 

 

after reading the frankly shocking account from the person on here who had a sh*t time dealing with them (sorry, I can't remember who it was). Hopefully proper meaningful change.

Same with the additional training too, its needed from what I saw

[Pinhead]

Oxfam Priority is Feb 4th.

[philipsteak]

12 hours ago, efcfanwirral said:

Same with the additional training too, its needed from what I saw

 

Yep. 

Every now and then I have a thought along the lines of so much of the work done at these sometimes huge events is done by well meaning (but, let's be honest, not always that well meaning), pretty minimally trained volunteers.

The crowd management stuff could be interesting

[tarw]

2 hours ago, philipsteak said:

 

Yep. 

Every now and then I have a thought along the lines of so much of the work done at these sometimes huge events is done by well meaning (but, let's be honest, not always that well meaning), pretty minimally trained volunteers.

The crowd management stuff could be interesting

If it’s the same material that GFEL have as an optional training module for its volunteers it will be good. I found it very interesting when I did it. 
It probably will be based on that because I know that Oxfam use GFEL servers for stuff that they do at other festivals so obviously share resources 

[philipsteak]

2 hours ago, tarw said:

If it’s the same material that GFEL have as an optional training module for its volunteers it will be good. I found it very interesting when I did

2 hours ago, tarw said:

If it’s the same material that GFEL have as an optional training module for its volunteers it will be good. I found it very interesting when I did it. 
It probably will be based on that because I know that Oxfam use GFEL servers for stuff that they do at other festivals so obviously share resources 

it. 
It probably will be based on that because I know that Oxfam use GFEL servers for stuff that they do at other festivals so obviously share resources 

 

You'd assume it would be.

If the resources are already there it'd be odd not to use it

[CharlotteB]

Ready to get my recycling application filled in now 😁 let's go!

[Pinhead]

Madly even doing the priority places has become like ticket day now. BT goes in 2 mins. Glasto a few mins later.

[stuie]

33 minutes ago, Pinhead said:

Madly even doing the priority places has become like ticket day now. BT goes in 2 mins. Glasto a few mins later.

Glasto doesn’t normally sell out on priority I don’t think? Maybe this year? 

[incident]

26 minutes ago, stuie said:

Glasto doesn’t normally sell out on priority I don’t think? Maybe this year? 

 

It never has, or even come close, at least since they tightened up the priority criteria about 10 years back. It was discussed earlier in the thread.

 

It's only the smaller ones like Bearded and Trees that do.

[Someoni]

Could anyone please explain how this works? Just curious and I feel its good to know

[tarw]

5 minutes ago, Someoni said:

Could anyone please explain how this works? Just curious and I feel its good to know

Oxfam volunteers who worked at at least two festivals last year ( or different criteria for supervisors:veterans) have priority when applying this year. They can apply a week before those that don’t have priority 

[Aragorn]

23 hours ago, CharlotteB said:

Ready to get my recycling application filled in now 😁 let's go!

They are not out yet are they? Waiting for the fb page to update

[stuie]

Congrats Oxfam Priority People! 

 

It's very nice knowing that your place is in your basket... Feb 4th isn't that far away and then it's downhill from there! 

 

Wishing all of the volunteers here a wonderful Christmas 🙂 

 

 

[March Hare]

Hmmm no priority email for me. Got a Glasto ticket so no biggie. I’ll wait a week to see if it lands.

 

I should be good until 2028 on the 7 in 7 rule.

Edited 3 hours ago by March Hare