I Want to Volunteer This Year

[keitho18]

Hey there, attended the festival this past Summer and had the time of my life! Unfortunately money is tight as I'm attending university now. Therefore I decided volunteering would be a more frugal way of getting to the Festival.

How/where do I sign up? Should I use this link?: http://www.festaff.co.uk/apply-for-festival-jobs

I also hear I can volunteer through Oxfam or Greenpeace but I can't find any applications (perhaps it is too early?)

I know tickets go on sale Oct 1st, and I just want to be prepared as I really want to come over and attend again this year!

Also any experience on volunteering yourself would be greatly appreciated! I originally found out about this from a fair few Festival goers I met this Summer and it seems more than worth it!

[glasto-worker]

Hey there, attended the festival this past Summer and had the time of my life! Unfortunately money is tight as I'm attending university now. Therefore I decided volunteering would be a more frugal way of getting to the Festival.

How/where do I sign up? Should I use this link?: http://www.festaff.co.uk/apply-for-festival-jobs

I also hear I can volunteer through Oxfam or Greenpeace but I can't find any applications (perhaps it is too early?)

I know tickets go on sale Oct 1st, and I just want to be prepared as I really want to come over and attend again this year!

Also any experience on volunteering yourself would be greatly appreciated! I originally found out about this from a fair few Festival goers I met this Summer and it seems more than worth it!

well you wont find many links now as they tend to go up and down very fast although there is nothing stopping you sending a e-mail to each and they are least should keep you up to date.

I always advise new Volunteers to become a Volunteer at a pet shelter or a Hospital for a few months in the winter .

Why ? - well some may pre filter people and someone who has prior Volunteer experience will stand head and shoulders over the rest who don't have any experience at all.

Some will not pre filter ' its just being at the right place at the right time '

I have been a Festival Volunteer for the past 26 years and that opens lots of doors so even if I left the WBC { they run the main bars at Glasto } I have many contacts so getting a Volunteer job would be easy for me.

lots of Volunteer jobs are handed out well before they are advertised to the public so you have to stand out -

have a look at

http://www.wbc-team.co.uk/fest-jobs.html

note - most of the links may be dead just now but I will update that area January 2015 when I know what the current links are .

' Your Big problem is your not from the EU ' - this is from the Oxfam site

' Can I apply if I'm not a British citizen ?

'Certain visa restrictions apply. If you are from the European Union, you are free to volunteer in the UK. For those from outside the EU, you will need to check that your visa allows you to volunteer. We advise that you contact the UK Borders and Immigration Agency to find out.

Oxfam is not able to support individuals who need visas to come to the UK to volunteer. Oxfam cannot support volunteer visas, as we do not have the correct licence to do so.

Please note, you will not be able to volunteer as a steward if you are not eligible to volunteer in the UK.'

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Your best to contact UK Borders and Immigration Agency and find out exactly your status - trust me it will crop up time and time again and its up to you to supply proof ' your legal to volunteer in the UK '

sure its all red tape but in recent years the Borders Agency { or whatever they are called this week as they keep changing their name } has been checking up at certain festivals

now these are complex rules but you can check via

https://www.gov.uk/legal-right-work-uk

Good luck

[incident]

Just to add to the above,

Even if you can get a VISA without being sponsored, remember that the cost saving only applies after the festival is done with - nearly every job available will require a £220+ deposit up front, with most or all of it being refunded a month or two after the festival.

The other potential issue is that places generally won't start recruiting until well after the public sale - for example Oxfam will probably open public applications in late February / early March and I'd expect most other places that recruit from the General Public to open up around the same time. So if you don't have priority status with any of the organisations, then you may not wish to rely on getting a job and certainly not book any flights etc until you're sure you've got one.

[bexj]

I would have recommended Festaff in the past based on a friends experience, but after two negative experiences with them this summer I'd really think twice about using them again.