Oxfam Steward Applications

[Martin Ashford]

Oxfam Stewarding places open to the general public on Tuesday 28th March (for Glastonbury and a big list of others including Reading/Leeds, Boomtown, Bestival and WOMAD). I just checked and there are currently 1.476 places available for Glastonbury. Some of these will be taken by applicants with Priority status but this has been open for a while now so I expect most of these will still be available next Tuesday. A deposit of £240 is needed for Glastonbury (returned in the Autumn if all shift commitments are completed). I'm not Stewarding Glastonbury as I have a ticket but its a great way of not only getting in but saving a LOT of money.  Go to www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/festivals. If you have not stewarded with Oxfam before a training session is mandatory. They hold these all over the country. I've been to a few and its excellent quality training.

[glasto-worker]

if Oxfam had been a option when I looked into becoming a Volunteer in 1986 I may have ended up being with them rather than the WBC but trust me at that time it was extremely difficult to become a  Volunteer for anyone - it took me three years to get into the WBC and as far as I know Oxfam stewarding did not start until years later in 1993  

There was no websites a person could look at - it was all friends of friends and if you did not know someone who was already a Volunteer you were stuffed.

its so easy now ' provided your willing to do the shifts ' - I have never regretted becoming a WBC Volunteer - the + points are far more than any minus points although I have ran into people who just did have the right attitude and rather than accepting that not everything will go their way - they somehow expect it will.

I know that Oxfam may allow a shift swap if you find someone to swap with but certainly it does not work like that in the WBC - once the shifts are allocated ' they are fixed ' { well not for the first 25 years }

once you get into Volunteering - you will soon see why many of us has never gone back to being a ticket holder.

the more years you do it - the more your space is nearly guaranteed .

and the big extra bonus is your raising funds for a worthwhile Charity so its a win win all round.

[leej7]

How were you able to see the number of spaces left? Are you currently priority status because I have tried to find out and it won't let me access the festivals list until opening on Tuesday 

[Martin Ashford]

1 hour ago, leej7 said:

How were you able to see the number of spaces left? Are you currently priority status because I have tried to find out and it won't let me access the festivals list until opening on Tuesday 

Yes, I had priority status this year and I'm doing Download, Boomtown and Shambala with them. There were only 20 places left for Download but quite a few for al the others.

[leej7]

okay thank you for the details! Fingers crossed I get lucky on tuesday with a glasto spot

[jfaragher]

Some top tips for applying for Oxfam tomorrow:

Do your pre-application.  Get over to http://www.oxfam.org.uk/stewarding/ and get all the details in that they ask for up front.

Be prepared for additional information you will need - 

• Debit / credit card with cleared funds (£240) available, you don't want to miss out because you can't pay your deposit.  
• Decision made on whether you want to apply for early shifts (you will need your own transport for this, be able to arrive on the Saturday before, and potenitally to feed yourself for a few days before all the catering gets fully sorted, depends on what the arrangements are this year).
• If not early shifts, whether you want to arrive on Monday or Tuesday
• Details (full name and D.O.B) of anyone who you want to be on the same shift as.

The places are allocated as the deposits are taken, so be fast, and be lucky!  Like the ticket sales, it's very much a case of the stars aligning - there are ~1450 places, and they will be gone fast.  If it is Glastonbury you are after, just do the application for this - you can go back and do the others straight afterwards, but Glasto is the only one that will sell out tomorrow.

If you do get a place, get in touch with your references to ask them to respond to the request from Oxfam promptly - you don't want to lose your place because of this.

Good luck!

 

[Pinhead]

Martin - did you see the number of places left for boomtown?

[jfaragher]

6 minutes ago, Pinhead said:

Martin - did you see the number of places left for boomtown?

~430 left - they seem to be going a bit quicker this year, but shouldn't disappear as fast as the glastonbury one.

[Pinhead]

Ah, cheers for that.

[mynameismatt]

Is there any sign of when applications will open, or could it be at any time tomorrow?

[jfaragher]

Usually, it opens at around 10am.  You should follow the Twitter feed, and subscribe to the facebook page and stuff.

 

Check this out for the latest details - http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get-involved/festivals/festivals-blog/2017/03/festivals-friday-update-24-march

[amfy]

Do you have to pay for a second festival to get Glastonbury or will they accept an application for just glastonbury?

Edited March 27, 2017 by amfy
Typo I mean apply not pay!

[Matt42]

hope this works out in me and my friends favour tomorrow

fingers crossed

[Pinhead]

They will accept just Glastonbury and the specific deposit for that. To get onto their Priority List for next year, you would need to do two festivals as a minimum this year.

[StoneCircle]

2 hours ago, amfy said:

Do you have to pay for a second festival to get Glastonbury or will they accept an application for just glastonbury?

It is worth remembering that you only pay for the highest festival deposit - no matter how many you volunteer for with Oxfam.

[Martin Ashford]

6 hours ago, jfaragher said:

~430 left - they seem to be going a bit quicker this year, but shouldn't disappear as fast as the glastonbury one.

Yes. Oxfam have said they have been surprised at the demand for Boomtown.  I rate it second only to Glastonbury now and word is spreading fast.

[mr gumby]

I wonder what the chances are that the glasto lineup poster will be revealed bang on the same time as oxfam applications open? Might mean people who are more interested in the lineup get distracted, and places get filled by those who want to volunteer regardless of who's playing. 

I'm probably overthinking it!

[arcade fireman]

What are the shift patterns like for Glasto? It's 3 x 8 hour shifts right? 

[incident]

1 hour ago, arcade fireman said:

What are the shift patterns like for Glasto? It's 3 x 8 hour shifts right? 

Yes. The majority of stewards will be allocated to one of the 5 relatively standard shift patterns, designated as A to E:

            Wed  Thu  Fri  Sat  Sun
6am - 2pm   A    D    B    E    C
2pm - 10pm  B    E    C    A    D
10pm - 6am  C    A    D    B    E

Hopefully the table formatting holds up. So for the most part, people on those patterns will get one each of a morning, afternoon, and night shift.

However there's still quite a few exceptions to the above - there's more than 15 gates in total, and not all of them are 24 hours so not everyone gets a night shift. Patterns for some people can also vary a bit in order to provide extra cover on the Wednesday 6am shift during the initial rush, or to ensure that there's people covering the gates and pedestrian crossings on Monday morning.

[glasto-worker]

9 hours ago, incident said:

Yes. The majority of stewards will be allocated to one of the 5 relatively standard shift patterns, designated as A to E:

            Wed  Thu  Fri  Sat  Sun
6am - 2pm   A    D    B    E    C
2pm - 10pm  B    E    C    A    D
10pm - 6am  C    A    D    B    E

Hopefully the table formatting holds up. So for the most part, people on those patterns will get one each of a morning, afternoon, and night shift.

However there's still quite a few exceptions to the above - there's more than 15 gates in total, and not all of them are 24 hours so not everyone gets a night shift. Patterns for some people can also vary a bit in order to provide extra cover on the Wednesday 6am shift during the initial rush, or to ensure that there's people covering the gates and pedestrian crossings on Monday morning.

Thanks for that grid as its very interesting to see how Oxfam does it - I can see that they have really thought about it .

The WBC system is far more complex than that and new Volunteers don't appreciate that shift patterns are spread out over the whole season rather then one individual event.

overall I and many others work more hours but over a shorter shift period { 6 or 7 hours and in my case I work six days { and overnight on the Sunday } although most others it will be five days with no overnight work }

if I was a Oxfam Volunteer I would find those shift patterns to be very fair.

Edited March 28, 2017 by glasto-worker

[DeadAmos]

With the Applications opening in a couple of hours , and lots of places up for grabs

I would like to wish you all Good Luck and hope to see you in the Oxfield in June

[mr gumby]

Good luck peeps!

 

[mynameismatt]

I got through! Kind of apprehensive about going on my own but better than not being there at all

[Matt42]

YEEEEES i'm coming

[M!!!]

So if I got through and paid my deposit thats pretty much confirmed then?! Can I officially get excited now?!!! (subject to the training session and my reference obviously

)