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The Volunteering thread 2019


FestiZebra
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On 7/2/2019 at 8:32 PM, Sku said:

 I'm amazed to see so little talk about Festaff in this thread... I think it's a great deal... perhaps their regular volunteers are trying to keep it quiet...

Did you have to volunteer for any other festivals to get your Glasto place? 

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Loved working with Festaff... BUT

It was 26 hours this year not 24.

Additionally you have to attend a staff meeting on the Monday and do training on the Tuesday.

I would say it adds to about 30 hours altogether,  plus a few hours queuing up for shifts.. plus you have to pay 250 quid up front, which you don’t get back until you have completed another sister festival with them.

Still loved it but slightly more involved than just 3 x 8 hour shifts.

 

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9 minutes ago, alisonbison said:

Loved working with Festaff... BUT

It was 26 hours this year not 24.

Additionally you have to attend a staff meeting on the Monday and do training on the Tuesday.

I would say it adds to about 30 hours altogether,  plus a few hours queuing up for shifts.. plus you have to pay 250 quid up front, which you don’t get back until you have completed another sister festival with them.

Still loved it but slightly more involved than just 3 x 8 hour shifts.

 

So you have to do 2 festivals with them?

And who benefits from your time?  I mean, I know my time is raising money for Oxfam.  Who are the beneficiaries of Festaff volunteering?

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3 hours ago, hurdy said:

Did you have to volunteer for any other festivals to get your Glasto place? 

Volunteering for 2 festivals the previous summer gives you priority for Glastonbury places, but it’s not a requirement.

 

Loads of people got places who did not have priority but it was less straightforward, people who applied on non- priority day found it as demanding a ticket day! However, quite a few on here stuck at it & kept checking right up until the festival and got places later on - some landed places literally days before!

The best 2nd bite at places is just after resales day when people who have registered because they haven’t got a ticket, get a ticket and then drop out opening up more volunteer places.

So - doing 2 festivals a summer makes your Glastonbury place more straightforward, but in the past many many people have got in and only done Glastonbury. 

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22 hours ago, stuie said:

So you have to do 2 festivals with them?

And who benefits from your time?  I mean, I know my time is raising money for Oxfam.  Who are the beneficiaries of Festaff volunteering?

I think it’s a private company. Not aware of any link to charity.

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So this was my first time volunteering at a festival and I was with Oxfam. I was lucky with my shifts as I didn’t miss any artists I wanted to see (saw The Killers on their last tour) but did end up on on a ped gate in the sun (jeez it was hot).  So my post is with that perspective.

Working 8 hour shifts in any capacity at a festival is going to drain your energy, in the sun or rain.  Some shifts were 60mins from camp. I was burning into the reserves and booze free days would have helped with hindsight :).

I thought the briefing was stern but needed to be. Oxfam have a reputation to protect and not everyone thinks in the same way. Some people will want to put a lot into the shifts and some are shirkers (I definitely saw one of them - so annoying). Some will just downright take the piss.  I had no problem with them setting out the boundaries early doors.

Some tasks such as an incredibly quiet vehicle gate are boring. Having stewards who are good company is essential but also down to luck.

All my supervisors were polite and friendly.  We were rotated out of the sun when it got hot. 

I cant comment on the number of stewards as I don’t know anything about the deal with the festival or licence conditions etc etc.

Loved parking close to the camp, loved the caterers (cracking late night chips), loved the showers (I missed one planned shower when they prioritised drinking water).  It was a long walk in to the festival, so chilling out at the tent for an hour between acts isn’t an option. Left with the mantra “if I’m going out, I’m staying out” :). 

I thought Oxfam could have been clearer that at Glastonbury all the shifts are on the perimeter. A part of me thought we would be stewarding around the music venues but maybe that is just me.  

Other than that, training was good (did mine online), pre-festival information was clear, campsite was full of lovely people and there was a sense of community around the place.  I was there with someone and appreciated that they put us on the same shift times (at different locations).

The shifts you end up with make a huge difference. If my mates are volunteering too, i’d work with Oxfam before getting a regular ticket. Even if it means missing an act or two.

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@March Hare - a good summary and a good attitude to volunteering.

At Glastonbury the volunteer tasks are at the edges of the site and many Oxfam volunteers avoid Glastonbury for that reason. You will find in many other festivals you have a good chance of being right in amongst it.

At Boomtown we had one shift helping direct people to campsites & answering general queries as the festival opened, but both of our shifts after it got started were at venues and we danced right through them. Similarly at Bestival - our first 2 shifts were both at venues where we were right in the middle of the action, and only our third shift, the overnight on the last night, was boring patrolling.

As you enjoyed volunteering at Glastonbury despite its particular challenges, you may well enjoy some other festivals more - & it’s a good way of trying out different things without breaking the bank.

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On 7/1/2019 at 11:08 AM, mikegday said:

It doesn’t help that we got the shift pattern we least wanted, the shift patterns seem really unfair some miss hardly no music and some miss two days of music. 

The shifts follow a pattern like this. Some, like C, would take a chunk out of party time.

60078FC3-9EA5-42EE-99A4-CD7CE4018FBB.jpeg

Edited by March Hare
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9 hours ago, March Hare said:

The shifts follow a pattern like this. Some, like C, would take a chunk out of party time.

60078FC3-9EA5-42EE-99A4-CD7CE4018FBB.jpeg

Exactly - so you’ve got the likes of E (almost all 3 days of music minus last headliner) and B (same, all music except Saturday headliner) compared to D (miss Friday headliner and all Sunday wiped out). Massive difference in amount of music you can watch between the shifts.

I think D is the worst because you have your 2-10pm and night shift during music. C doesn’t have that. 

 

Edited by mikegday
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We completely lucked out with our oxfam shifts:

Weds 6am - 2pm, Thurs 2pm - 10pm, Sat 6am - 2pm

So missed barely any music and no overnight shifts.

Some of the shift patterns on the swap board in the marquee looked absolutely brutal, and I think would have completely changed my festival experience.

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Splodge said:

We completely lucked out with our oxfam shifts:

Weds 6am - 2pm, Thurs 2pm - 10pm, Sat 6am - 2pm

So missed barely any music and no overnight shifts.

Some of the shift patterns on the swap board in the marquee looked absolutely brutal, and I think would have completely changed my festival experience.

 

 

That’s lucky, I had decent shifts but it’s a bit unfair some would get stitched up.

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4 minutes ago, Splodge said:

We completely lucked out with our oxfam shifts:

Weds 6am - 2pm, Thurs 2pm - 10pm, Sat 6am - 2pm

So missed barely any music and no overnight shifts.

Some of the shift patterns on the swap board in the marquee looked absolutely brutal, and I think would have completely changed my festival experience.

 

 

That’s lucky, I had decent shifts but it’s a bit unfair some would get stitched up.

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I was on a C shift, and it suited my plans - I was only bothered with Gojira and the Cure on the lineup beforehand, so I got the night out of the way on Wednesday - easy stuff - then a 2-10 Friday luckily working in the SE corner so I could hotfoot it over to the Truth stage with ten minutes to spare (being on gate D or similar would’ve sucked) and I made that my big late all nighter, with all of Saturday free and an early on Sunday so I could plan my headliners accordingly. I was a bit lucky ??

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10 hours ago, March Hare said:

The shifts follow a pattern like this. Some, like C, would take a chunk out of party time.

60078FC3-9EA5-42EE-99A4-CD7CE4018FBB.jpeg

Interesting. Looks like I was pattern E, but pulled from the Sunday/Mon overnight shift to Weds morning so they had extra cover for gates opening.

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On 7/4/2019 at 5:28 PM, alisonbison said:

 

I would say it adds to about 30 hours altogether,  plus a few hours queuing up for shifts.. plus you have to pay 250 quid up front, which you don’t get back until you have completed another sister festival with them

 

That sounds outrageous having to do a second festival to get your deposit back. In all the companies I have worked for I have never heard of that. 

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On 7/4/2019 at 5:28 PM, alisonbison said:

Loved working with Festaff... BUT

It was 26 hours this year not 24.

Additionally you have to attend a staff meeting on the Monday and do training on the Tuesday.

I would say it adds to about 30 hours altogether,  plus a few hours queuing up for shifts.. plus you have to pay 250 quid up front, which you don’t get back until you have completed another sister festival with them.

Still loved it but slightly more involved than just 3 x 8 hour shifts.

 

Sounds shit.

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48 minutes ago, Splodge said:

We completely lucked out with our oxfam shifts:

Weds 6am - 2pm, Thurs 2pm - 10pm, Sat 6am - 2pm

So missed barely any music and no overnight shifts.

Some of the shift patterns on the swap board in the marquee looked absolutely brutal, and I think would have completely changed my festival experience.

 

 

Jammy bastards! ? Overnights are tough.

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7 minutes ago, Pipine said:

I liked having an overnight, meant less time lost during the day.  I was lucky and got A shift which worked out out pretty well tho I did miss foals.. 

I was on A shift too, but had Saturday 6am-2pm, instead of the 2-10pm. I was very happy with my hours, and very lucky!! 

 

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24 minutes ago, Pipine said:

I liked having an overnight, meant less time lost during the day.  I was lucky and got A shift which worked out out pretty well tho I did miss foals.. 

Saturday night for me. Already flagging. Maxed the energy for first four hours then crashed and fucking burned in the last four to the point where I was debating running as fast as I could, head powered at the fence to break my own neck and end it then and there.

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1 hour ago, Splodge said:

Interesting. Looks like I was pattern E, but pulled from the Sunday/Mon overnight shift to Weds morning so they had extra cover for gates opening.

That makes sense.  This is a indicator of shift patterns (not from an official source or anything) but I’d expect them to front load stewards as the gates inevitably get quieter Friday-Sunday afternoon.  I’ve no doubt people got shifts that felt pretty rubbish.  But you are never going to get 2.5k people happy with their shifts.  And it’s inevitable that they need stewards when the big acts are on i.e the 2pm-10pm and 10pm-6pm.  

For me it was a way in, a privilege to be there given I missed out on a regular ticket. Then, as a bonus, ended up enjoying the volunteering - fellow stewards had huge part to play in that.  I just made the most of the free time I had (and drank a lot of coffee!)

I had my late nighter straight after my 10pm finish

Edited by March Hare
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On 7/2/2019 at 4:27 PM, pie_and_a_pint said:

4 x 6 hours for litterpicking. 6am - 12noon or 1pm to 7pm, Thurs to Sun or Fri to Mon.

I do mornings Fri to Mon; would hate afternoons.

Who do you volunteer with? I would be quite keen for early morning litterpicking if I didn't get a ticket next year!

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