20 replies to this topic

[craigb]

This will be mine and few of my mates first glastonbury, for some odd reason we are working it instead of getting tickets like everyone else. We attend a few festivals a year but never done glastonbury

If you had the choice would you go for an 8am to 8pm or 8pm to 8am shift. You stick to that shift for 5 days wed - sun. why would you choice that shift?

We are arriving on the Tuesday morning for staff meeting or what ever. Will any bars/stands be open on the Tuesday? I'm guessing no

Do staff camp with everyday festival goers or have own area? Its stewarding we are doing, and we are employed by the event agency

Cheers

[paulomas]

i'd say buy a ticket next time - i couldnt possibly pick either of the two time slots! gonna miss out on alot. i'm doing latitude and reading with oxfam this year and luckily its only three 8 hour shifts across the 5 days, not one every day/night. i guess i'd have to go for 8am to 8pm so you've got the night to have fun. good luck with it!

[Digi]

Eeek!  5 12 hour shifts in a row?!  I hope they pay well!  I think I would go for the day shifts - trying to get some sleep in a boiling hot tent if you have been working nights would be no fun, and I think I would rather catch the atmosphere at night rather than the day and then head back to the tent around 2-3am to get a few hours.

5 12 hour shifts would kill me!  I feel knackered just thinking about it!  Good luck!

[sneakydave]

You'll probabily get your own campsite but can escape if your sly about it. Dunno if youd want to though, youll probabily have to report to the campsite at the start of your shift and there might be cleaner toilets and showers that you dont get in the normal campsite.. Staff tend to be pretty good to be around anyway because they're the type who go to loads of festivals and know how to have a good time when they're there

12hr shifts are pretty horrible I've only had that once and even with 2hrs break a day it was still pretty tough. I'd go for the 8am - 8pm shift because youll still get to see all the biggest bands then go get drunk and wander around the nighttime stuff. That and sleeping during the day in a tent is pretty hard, even when you've been working all night!

What is it your doing? Carparks or something? I thought most stewards worked 8hrs these days..

Tuesday is pretty fun, its weird being there when all the camping fields are empty. Theres still more than 20k people there by then though. Never found a bar thats open mind, but then ive never looked for one. We usually just go sit in the park on whatever weird seats they have and crack open a few cans that night.

Being able to go early is one of the reasons I work there. I could afford a ticket this year but ive always had loads of fun working and i dont see how it could be better if I didnt - you get to be there earlier, have showers and free food, camp with funny people and meet loads of people on your shift

[Conrax]

I couldn't possibly even think about working any festival let alone Glasto, i would be far to tired/ drunk when im suposed to be working. Good luck.

[LusciousLucy]

I would absolutely work the 8am-8pm shifts because ALL the fun happens in the dark hours!

I am working at the G this year and there will be times when I will have to work 8 hours (I think ) from Midnight...BUT...the rewards gained from f**king with peoples heads at night when they come calling for food at 3am is going to be worth the later hour shifts. Cant wait!

Hopefully will be getting to site from the Sunday too...SOLSTICE AT GLASTO...GET IN!

[muddyslingbax]

craigb, on May 23 2010, 08:55 PM, said:

This will be mine and few of my mates first glastonbury, for some odd reason we are working it instead of getting tickets like everyone else. We attend a few festivals a year but never done glastonbury

If you had the choice would you go for an 8am to 8pm or 8pm to 8am shift. You stick to that shift for 5 days wed - sun. why would you choice that shift?

We are arriving on the Tuesday morning for staff meeting or what ever. Will any bars/stands be open on the Tuesday? I'm guessing no

Do staff camp with everyday festival goers or have own area? Its stewarding we are doing, and we are employed by the event agency

Cheers

WHY?

[Rufus Gwertigan]

craigb, on May 23 2010, 08:55 PM, said:

This will be mine and few of my mates first glastonbury, for some odd reason we are working it instead of getting tickets like everyone else. We attend a few festivals a year but never done glastonbury

If you had the choice would you go for an 8am to 8pm or 8pm to 8am shift. You stick to that shift for 5 days wed - sun. why would you choice that shift?

We are arriving on the Tuesday morning for staff meeting or what ever. Will any bars/stands be open on the Tuesday? I'm guessing no

Do staff camp with everyday festival goers or have own area? Its stewarding we are doing, and we are employed by the event agency

Cheers

Welcome. I did my first Glasto in 2003. Since then I have done nearly 70 festivals, and only been to 4 as a punter.

Working is great. Enjoy

Edited by Rufus Gwertigan, 23 May 2010 - 10:15 PM.

[___S_o_m_a__]

If I was you I would do the 8am - 8pm shift. On my first shift I'd do a Kaiser Soze and hobble off into the sunrise at 8:30am not to be seen again. You can have that for free.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

___S_o_m_a__, on May 23 2010, 11:34 PM, said:

If I was you I would do the 8am - 8pm shift. On my first shift I'd do a Kaiser Soze and hobble off into the sunrise at 8:30am not to be seen again. You can have that for free.

That would be really cool if everyone working that shift did that. Yeah ace, then the festival gets shut down

I f**king hate people that are supposed to work and then f**k off. They are worse than paedophiles in my book.

(I don't bugger kids but I work at festivals!!)

[smiley33]

Rufus Gwertigan, on May 24 2010, 12:30 AM, said:

That would be really cool if everyone working that shift did that. Yeah ace, then the festival gets shut down

I f**king hate people that are supposed to work and then f**k off. They are worse than paedophiles in my book.

(I don't bugger kids but I work at festivals!!)

they are worse than paedophiles????????    jesus. you sad f**ker.

[sneakydave]

Its a shame people bugger off, not having to pay a deposit would be really nice!

[glasto-worker]

craigb, on May 23 2010, 08:55 PM, said:

We are arriving on the Tuesday morning for staff meeting or what ever. Will any bars/stands be open on the Tuesday? I'm guessing no

each crew has their separate camping area so it really depends who your working for and they may or may not have a staff bar .

Although there is a bar open on the Tuesday its only open to WBC Staff but its likely { don't have conformation yet } the main bars will be open from the Wednesday onwards.

I will be there Tuesday afternoon { WBC crew will arrive at various times later that day } so time to put my feet up.

[philipsteak]

I'm sure I remember the cider bus open on the Tuesday one year. Think it might've been 2005. Could well have been open this year too, but I didn't go looking cos I was still jet lagged and passed out at my tent really early.

[glasto-worker]

philipsteak, on May 24 2010, 06:45 AM, said:

I'm sure I remember the cider bus open on the Tuesday one year. Think it might've been 2005. Could well have been open this year too, but I didn't go looking cos I was still jet lagged and passed out at my tent really early.

I don't enter via the normal entry point but how were you able to be onsite Tuesday last year as the gates did not open until the Wednesday .

they may have been there but I doubt they were trading { as the alcohol Licence last year did not start until the Wednesday }

So unless you work there it could not have been the Tuesday

[___S_o_m_a__]

Rufus Gwertigan, on May 24 2010, 12:30 AM, said:

That would be really cool if everyone working that shift did that. Yeah ace, then the festival gets shut down

I f**king hate people that are supposed to work and then f**k off. They are worse than paedophiles in my book.

(I don't bugger kids but I work at festivals!!)

You're either a comedy genius or a retard.

[amfy]

When I worked Phoenix many years ago we did alternate 8 hour shifts (8am - 4pm & 4pm - midnight) and you did the morning one day and the evening the next - they grouped us all together and drew us out of a hat when we arrived to see which shift we got, and you were allowed to try and find someone to swap with if someone your really wanted to see was on whilst you were due on duty. You will probably find you can do this too.

We were straight on duty after the info meeting - on the gate, wrist band tugging, from  4 to midnight. Then at midnight they told us we had to wait for the night shift to turn up and take over the gate. Hours later there was still no sign of the "night shift". They eventually realised that there wasn't a night shift and they were just supposed to lock the gate! We got back to our tent at about 4 in the morning and had to be back on duty for another 8 hour shift at 8am!

By the time we got to our time off, we were too shattered to do anything! I still vividly remember sitting just outside the arena in the staff canteen, hearing the manic street preachers drifting across from the main stage with my feet throbbing like a Tom & Jerry cartoon! I still can't bear the sound of A Design For Life! (but tbf I don't think that's anything to do with this experience - it was just the worst possible backdrop to the nightmare)

To make matters worse the way security handled the event was appalling. I was really trying not to let on when people didn't have a wristband but it was so mind numbing you just got into a rythmn of finding and tugging wristbands and security would just notice really quickly if you didn't find one or it was loose and just wade in and drag people off by their hair - it was horrible!

...and there were terrible traffic problems - stratford just gridlocked - people were arriving with day tickets at 10pm and security were still making us send them back to queue at wristbanding even though they would've missed everything by the time they'd done that!

We woke up the next morning and weren't due back on duty till 4 pm but we just made up a family emergency and left! We just couldn't face doing it all again. I know it's not great to leave a festival potentially understaffed but I couldn't've hated it more! I've never worked a festival again although i have heard that glastonbury is much better.

I really hope you have a better time!

Edited by amfy, 24 May 2010 - 08:36 AM.

[craigb]

Thanks for all the response. A lot of people suggesting the early shift. A few of my friends suggesting the late shift.
Still very torn

The early shift would let us see the top three bands each day, can have a good drink, see the night entertainment and sleep at a decent time. But that means having to get up early every morning and missing a lot of bands.

If we did the night shift we would get to see all the bands in the day, we will see some sun without having to work in it, I can imagine the night shifts being more laid back and less people supervising us.

Most festivals are better in the evenings I suppose

The why?
The stewarding is really good money, and one of my friends organises all the staff for one of the agencies. We found out after we got the jobs what shifts and how many days it would be. He manage to leave that bit of info out when telling me about the job. However we are being paid to be at the glastonbury!

I have been told last year the stewards that were with this agency got a choice of which area they got placed in. The shifts also rotate around glastonbury throughout the 12 hour shifts and days. What are the best areas to be in while working?

Cheers again

[glasto-worker]

amfy, on May 24 2010, 09:36 AM, said:

When I worked Phoenix many years ago we did alternate 8 hour shifts (8am - 4pm & 4pm - midnight) and you did the morning one day and the evening the next - they grouped us all together and drew us out of a hat when we arrived to see which shift we got, and you were allowed to try and find someone to swap with if someone your really wanted to see was on whilst you were due on duty. You will probably find you can do this too.

if it was Manic Street Preachers then it may have been 1993 which was the first year it was held. { I am not a fan so not sure if they played another year as well but I know for a fact they were there in 1993 }

there was various Security Companies used but the main one was Specialized Security who are from Scotland.

its a shame you gave up as the Phoenix turned into a really good festival and ran on until 1997  { in 1998  Vince { Mean Fiddler } pulled the plug as the council quadrupled their Policing bill so the bands were moved to Reading and he walked away { it was a six year contract }

if you recall the site as your standing at the car entry gate looking at the arena all the camping was between that gate and the arena but the WBC and a few Security Companies  camped the other side of the arena so it was well out of sight of the ticket holders .

one of the nights two jokers climbed over the fence to our campsite thinking they had got into the arena but as our campsite was not connected to the arena they then had a big problem as you need a pass to leave the WBC Campsite but they never got that far .

their luck was running out fast as they pitched their tent next to our tent and in the morning i went to the bog and when I got back they were talking to my girlfriend and it was obvious they did not have a clue where they were - I told them they would have to pack otherwise I would get Security to toss them out - they realised they were stuffed so they packed up and I walked them to the gate.

they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time + its a WBC rule that all staff display their pass at all times so if they had camped further away they would soon have been spotted but at least this way they got time to pack up.

I worked there each year and found it better than Reading although not sure about any traffic problem as we used to arrive a few days before the gates opened but I do know there was one year when it was really bad but that was not 1993 . { think it was 1997 }

[amfy]

I was a student when I did it, so that places it between 95-97 - probably 96! The only act I actually remember seeing that year was Alanis Morisette, but I do remember David Bowie was on. I did go to Phoenix as a paying customer a couple of times around then too and had a great time - it was just working it I hated!

It was Specialized Security - they were inflexible at best and animals at worst! One girl of only about 18 came running down the runway with her rucksack, and her sleeping bag in her arms with tears streaming down her face because she was going to miss David Bowie having been stuck on a coach for hours and they totally refused to let her in with her valid ticket and sent her to wristbanding even though it was only a day ticket and we were up to the last act of the day! She was distraught, so I lent across and let her leave her rucksack and sleeping bag with me, so she could run more easily.  Security went mad at me when they found out and said they'd throw me off the crew if i tried that kind of shit again "We're not a left luggage service!"

I do think working the bars is much better though - so much more part of the festival. Also - i can't imagine even the gates at glastonbury ever being so awful!