Martin Ashford

Definitely. He'll be a Glade headliner this year I think. As Steve's backing band is Gong I think they'll get their own slot too

Oxfam have frequently released a small number of places for all of their festivals without notification. Not all of them at the same time but this is a fact. They have also added festivals out of the blue after contracts have been signed off. It can happen!

Thank God for Oxfam. If I didn't have my place I would almost certainly not be going.

That's exactly what happened in 2015. It kind of burnt a hole in my soul.

I completely disagree. Glastonbury can be a very flexible organisation. Roger Waters was allowed to supplement the PA with full quadrophonic towers and he wasn't even on last. I will never forget the impact of that sound. They could set up that catwalk with relative ease I'm sure. As for the set - Taylor did festival sets without the Ginormous Reputation rig, She will do it.

I saw them last year at Bearded and hated their whole "look at us" approach. I left after a few numbers feeling a burning sense of anger.

Perfect for me, Nobody I'd feel sick to my stomach if I had to miss them through being on shift with Oxfam. War on Drugs are just the most amazing festival band. Cat Stevens!! I've never seen Guns N Roses so an ideal headliner for me but if they are up against Lana that will be a very tough call. The one that made me yell out loud though is Carly Rae Jepsen - SUPERB SURPRISE!!!!

My two big things have always been heavy rock and progressive/psychedelic rock. These days I always do Download with Oxfam and Glastonbury. Although Download is a very different set up with an actual Arena, etc, I tend to find I'm having an equally good time as it is such a mega friendly crowd who are there almost exclusively for the actual performers, not because it's the hip thing to be seen at. They book a huge range of up and coming bands (I saw Sleep Token - a complete mystery to most people then - headline the second stage in 2021, Wargasm and Employed To Serve (who I saw supporting Gojira last week) and are generally great in promoting new, young talent. Glastonbury seems to be still meshed in the "has to be hip or at least BBC friendly" school of thought.

I'm pretty sure Neil trusts me. In the same way that I feel a burning resentment that a band I don't care for at all (Arctic Monkeys) are likely to have a Pyramid headline slot for the third time, it must seem quite offensive that a band he clearly doesn't like is having the peak headline slot at the best festival on Earth. A lot of people felt like that about Jay Z in 2008 (turns out he was brilliant). I feel a bit like that about Harry Styles even though I admit I am ideologically opposed to "someone like him" having a Pyramid slot in the first place and the fact that he probably had sex with Taylor Swift countless times (the bastard) but thereby inspiring most of the magnificent 1989 with lines like "he's so tall and handsome as hell". Do I sound jealous? I'm not a big fan of Guns N Roses myself but they are a huge "heritage" rock act with a massive crossover appeal thanks mainly to Sweet Child Of Mine which is so obiquitous that it's almost laughable these days.

Last year there were 2,700 Oxfam volunteers on site - this includes stewards (the vast majority), campaigners and shop workers. Yes, that's enough people to feel like a decent sized festival. Oxfam's main roles are administering the pedestrian gate entrances into the main site but we also have lots of stewards on the vehicle gates too. Sadly, unlike festivals like Download, Womad and Boomtown, we do not work around the stages. The Ped gates are extremely important to GFL for security and Licensing reasons so they stick to the best in the market - Oxfam. Each Ped gate shift will have a HUGE team of stewards and several Supervisors. They check all the wristbands, tickets (and photos), issue passouts and effectively let you in and out through the Superfence. The gates run 24 hours a day. No, we don't normally issue wristbands ( though my tiny team on Sticklynch Gate did this last year). We are HIGHLY TRUSTED. If you are a first time steward there is every chance you will be on a Pedestrian gate.

I've only seen Beyonce once when she was in a band called Destiny's Child. We were right on the barrier at a Radio One Big Weekend in Swansea. Free tickets too.

Yes. Without hesitation. It's a really good experience and you get to meet a LOT of people very quickly. I've made some extremely good friends through being a supervisor. You do get a certain amount of freedom, especially if you are covering several areas at once. This makes the shift go faster.

An important question. Somebody is tasked with arranging the rotas in advance of the festival. Even regular volunteers like myself won't know what shifts I'm getting, which locations, etc until I'm actually registered on site. I'm nearly always a Supervisor but I might also be a steward. It's a bit of a lottery at every festival. Usually I'm pretty happy with what I get but if I want to see a particular artist and I'm on duty there won't be much I can do about it. This, for me, is the big trade off between getting in for almost nowt and paying for a full price ticket If you are a steward, you are allowed to swap shifts with another steward. That can be done on site but it must be done officially using the computer system. It's nigh on impossible, as a Supervisor, to swap shifts as there are obviously far less Supervisors. Also, if your shift times simply don't work for you because of work, childcare, family stuff, etc .just let the Oxbox know straight away so they can rearrange things.

Don't forget, once you successfully log on, it's not just Glastonbury that will come up on the dropdown menu. I booked onto 9 festivals last week for the price of one deposit. You can always drop out later if you can't do them all. Don't forget Oxfam frequently does two or even three festivals the same weekend Boomtown and Boardmasters for example, Reading, Leeds and Shambala being the busiest. I highly recommend Download as every time Ive done it there have been zero night shifts (which is unusual) and most of our work involves stewarding the main arena accessible platforms. Good luck and keep the faith. You WILL go to the ball.