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Volunteering 2020


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22 minutes ago, Bovla said:

Brilliant, thanks! Of course I'm away in the US that day (I was away for ticket sales as well 😣) do we know what time they will be open?

Usually mid-morning (UK time). But it's quite possible that they don't announce a time in advance in order to try and avoid the web site getting overloaded and failing (as happened last year).

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9 minutes ago, incident said:

Usually mid-morning (UK time). But it's quite possible that they don't announce a time in advance in order to try and avoid the web site getting overloaded and failing (as happened last year).

Mmmm yes that's what remember from before, but that was back in 2014. Assume it hasn't changed though, looking at a 5am start in Boston 😴

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On 10/7/2019 at 11:12 PM, sirjonnyp said:

Can only say for the toilet crew. You will either be assigned Tuesday arrival or Wednesday arrival, with a training shift on the evening you arrive. Judging by the amount of tents last this year, I would guess it's a 50/50 split as to which day you get.

After the training (which was particularly useless (although not as useless as the pre-festival training)) you have four six hour shifts to work, with a guarantee of one day off. If you get there on the Wednesday I think you're supposed to work the Monday - can't confirm though. 

Most toilet teams have shifts that go from either 6am - noon, noon - 6pm or 6pm - midnight. WA aren't too fussed about punctuality, so don't mind if you sit around the campsite until twenty minutes into your shift, we never figured out why. This also works the other way - show up back at base half an hour early? Sweet, drop yer hi vis off and go enjoy yerself laddeh. 

If you're assigned an area in the SE corner you have been unlucky, your shifts will be noon - 6pm, 6pm - midnight, midnight - 6am. And you have to work the SE corner. Silver Hayes shifts during the evening also suck. I would have hated a shift finishing at 6am this year in that heat. 

Generally though, toilet duty is fairly laid back and not that bad. Aside from cleaning the first round in the morning when they've been unattended for six or seven hours overnight, they're basically a good level of clean. Crowd control can be a bit annoying (I got pushed, shoved and verbally assaulted trying to litter pick in a urinal one evening) but that's basically the worst of it. Having been in a fair few sewers in my time I find it funny when people turn their noses up at toilet cleaning at the festival. It's really not that bad, the work isn't hard and it's a fairly good deal. 

WA organisation is a bit lacking, but last year was the first year that they have done all the longdrops on site, so maybe they'll do a better job this year. They give you one meal per shift, which my mate found out the hard way having misread the comms pack and thought they fed you every meal. You get free use of recycling crew's showers and they have some various snacks in their charging tent that are free. 

Edit - forgot to say that if you get she-wee your shifts are a bit bonkers - something like 8pm - 4am, 4am - noon, noon - 8pm but with two days off. I think if you have done a festival or two with WA before you will be more likely to go in the water tap shed things. 

 

TL,DR: 24 hours of shifts + useless pre-festival training, don't get south east corner for better shift patterns, no-one should turn their nose up at toilet cleaning. 

I would be up for this just don't like the odds of getting south east corner,  I could handle the other shifts but I would most likely miss most headliners I guess if that happens. 

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That all sounds like a nightmare, I did Oxfam last year and it was brilliant. Three 8hr shift's which went really quickly. The camping field was perfect, the facilities were excellent and being there Monday and Tuesday was the best part 👍 I missed the only act I was bothered about... chemical brothers but enjoyed loads of other bands which I wouldn't normally watch or get chance to see 👏👏👏

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Just now, gazzared said:

That all sounds like a nightmare, I did Oxfam last year and it was brilliant. Three 8hr shift's which went really quickly. The camping field was perfect, the facilities were excellent and bring there Monday and Tuesday was the best part 👍

^^^ what gazzared said 👍

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1 hour ago, brettredmayne said:

I would be up for this just don't like the odds of getting south east corner,  I could handle the other shifts but I would most likely miss most headliners I guess if that happens. 

I think you would probably be ok. Their base is five minutes from the pyramid field, so you would be fine for the shift that starts at midnight (just don't get too razzed). The way it is rota-ed you should get one of the days off, so that frees up another headliner. The only way you would miss a headline slot is if someone is on during your 6pm-midnight shift. Even then I would suggest that you could finish up about 22.45 and walk back via the pyramid. 

As an aside, we met a couple of guys who had done SE for a couple of years and said that for the midnight-6am shift, when it got too busy around 2am they went to shangra la crew bar for a few hours, had a few brews, then went back to it around 4am when it quietened down. Obviously can't condone that behaviour, but it does happen. 

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I've been lurking in this thread for a little while and I've two questions re: toilet cleaning. Do you also empty and replace the compost bins? That would seem like the worst part as they get pretty full sometimes.

Also do you bring your own protective gear on top of what water aid give you? Stronger gloves noseplugs (?)!

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11 hours ago, sirjonnyp said:

Not sure how true that is, I think they had a lot of people on the waiting list after the first and second round of drop outs. I'm sure there were people on here and on the facebook page that were checking in with them desperately in the build up. 

I think I would prefer the bad weather - a lot of elbow grease went into scraping and wiping off burned on poop last year :D The rain would also drive more people into the compostables, which aren't WA. 

I tip my hat to you sir. Having seen the states of  those longdrops by the railway line at peak times I could never do it.

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8 hours ago, Leyrulion said:

I've been lurking in this thread for a little while and I've two questions re: toilet cleaning. Do you also empty and replace the compost bins? That would seem like the worst part as they get pretty full sometimes.

Also do you bring your own protective gear on top of what water aid give you? Stronger gloves noseplugs (?)!

Compost are not served by WA as far as I'm aware

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On 1/8/2020 at 12:35 PM, Leyrulion said:

Also do you bring your own protective gear on top of what water aid give you? Stronger gloves noseplugs (?)!

I would recommend that people bring their own stuff in case. Last year there was a short supply of gloves, so I would stash the pair I was using in our container to dry out overnight (it gets sweaty in marigolds). If you have your own move comfortable gloves to take I would do so. I don't do much manual labour with my hands so I sniper-taped my fingers to avoid blisters from the marigolds. 

They supply two shirts (that you can keep) and a hi vis (that you give back - some people wanted to keep their dirty ones for some reason), otherwise you wear your own clothes. I think there were cheap face masks as well. Not sure I saw any nose-plugs, but if you aren't used to the smell already, you'll get used to it quickly. The smell being poop and then chemicals. I would recommend putting some string on your hat and sunglasses too - didn't happen to me but with all the leaning over the hole they are prone to slipping in. Your legs and feet will be the part of your body that gets the dirtiest / splattered, so avoid wearing your best stuff!

Always take your own alcohol hand-rub with you too - the WA supply went AWOL for two days. 

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24 minutes ago, Sweet_pea said:

Anyone know what time the Wateraid applications go live today?

Someone asked the same question on the Wateraid facebook page, not long ago. Someone, then, replied that applications go live at 10am. Even so another comment, by someone else, suggested that it didn't really matter, because everybody has until February to fill out the form. But then I guess you never know if the applications are accepted on some some sort of first come, first served basis.🙂

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