Volunteering 2021

[Pinhead]

See you all at Oxfam Bearded and Boomtown (plus Glasto as punter). Busy year ahead!

[Stave_1974]

Woo hoo, Glastonbury and Boardmasters so far...

[SecretFish]

Glastonbury and 2000Trees. Done

 

phew

[Pinhead]

Now then, what's the weather looking like...

[StoneCircle]

Glastonbury and Boardmasters for me! 

[Leyrulion]

Two for this year done, glasto back up 2023 secured.

[March Hare]

Booked, that was so easy. 
 

Looking at the list at 10:45 only Bearded Theory and The Long Road had filled up.

[March Hare]

12 minutes ago, Jensescapade said:

Yay, Glastonbury and Download with Oxfam 🥳

Well done! You’ve waited ages for this. I can remember messaging you about it in 2020 😂

Edited February 24, 2022 by March Hare

[incident]

3 minutes ago, March Hare said:

Booked, that was so easy. 
 

Looking at the list at 10:45 only Bearded Theory and The Long Road had filled up.

Looking at the list at 10:49 - TLR has space again, so presumably someone cancelled already or their payment bounced.

Odd.

[Jensescapade]

2 minutes ago, March Hare said:

Well done! You’ve waited ages for this. I can remember messaging you about it in 2020 😂

I've had the annual leave booked for over a year, just in case 😂 We are both very excited. Today is a great day. Can't wait to meet some new people and explore a different side of things. x

[philipsteak]

3 minutes ago, incident said:

Looking at the list at 10:49 - TLR has space again, so presumably someone cancelled already or their payment bounced.

Odd.

Seem to be a few struggling with payment.

 

[chuckles07]

19 minutes ago, Pinhead said:

See you all at Oxfam Bearded and Boomtown (plus Glasto as punter). Busy year ahead!

Ditto 👍. Plus womad and shambala. A great summer ahead 😎

[jfaragher]

31 minutes ago, philipsteak said:

Seem to be a few struggling with payment.

 

Yeah, there's some conflict between the payment implementation on the Oxfam website and (mainly) Natwest cards it seems...  Looks like Natwest require some authentication process that Oxfam / Stripe haven't enabled or something.  

[philipsteak]

2 minutes ago, jfaragher said:

Yeah, there's some conflict between the payment implementation on the Oxfam website and (mainly) Natwest cards it seems...  Looks like Natwest require some authentication process that Oxfam / Stripe haven't enabled or something.  

Well it wouldn't be an Oxfam application day without something...

Shit for the people who are stuck though. At least it'll be sorted for general applications. 

[gooner1990]

1 hour ago, Pinhead said:

See you all at Oxfam Bearded and Boomtown (plus Glasto as punter). Busy year ahead!

Out of interest what's volunteering with Oxfam like at Glastonbury?

I have a punter ticket this year but did volunteer on the bars in 2019 so would look to do so again if I didn't get a ticket.

I have seen there is also FESTAFF which seems like its more before the main action starts although I think you pretty much work all of the Weds & Thurs?

[stuie]

4 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Out of interest what's volunteering with Oxfam like at Glastonbury?

Amazing.  Car parking next to camping field, hot clean showers, decent grub, nice vibes.

Congratulations to all who have secured your places today. 

[Watergirl]

20 hours ago, gazzared said:

Yeah I'll be trying on the 1st march..I remember last time all the places went in about a minute 😮 think when I volunteered in 2019 they said they're was 2500 Oxfam volunteers so maybe 3000 this time.

Oh dear - a minute? It will be my first time trying, and I will be in work so will have to try to sneak off somewhere quiet with my phone. Is it likely to be 10:30 again - what do you think?

[gazzared]

8 minutes ago, Watergirl said:

Oh dear - a minute? It will be my first time trying, and I will be in work so will have to try to sneak off somewhere quiet with my phone. Is it likely to be 10:30 again - what do you think?

Not sure on the time but think they announce the time an hour before via twitter.

If you don't get an Oxfam place on Tuesday don't give up, keep refreshing the page as places appear if anyone drops out. I was refreshing the page all day everyday for a month for 2019 and got a place a week before it started 👏👏👏

Edited February 24, 2022 by gazzared
Spelling

[Pinhead]

26 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Out of interest what's volunteering with Oxfam like at Glastonbury?

I have a punter ticket this year but did volunteer on the bars in 2019 so would look to do so again if I didn't get a ticket.

I have seen there is also FESTAFF which seems like its more before the main action starts although I think you pretty much work all of the Weds & Thurs?

My last Glasto one was 2011 so its probably changed a lot since then. Most of the time its gate work which takes up most of the staff I reckon, but traffic direction / control was another frequent shift...

[fingers_mark]

All in for Glastonbury - very pleased... feels so long ago.

[gazzared]

One of my shifts in 2019 was an early shift delivering tea and coffee to the others who were on the gates... Was brilliant being driven around the site all morning 👏👏👏 second early shift was checking entry/exit at our own field and third shift was a night turn on worthy view gate and was funny seeing all the posh people wasted 🤣

[philipsteak]

41 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Out of interest what's volunteering with Oxfam like at Glastonbury?

I have a punter ticket this year but did volunteer on the bars in 2019 so would look to do so again if I didn't get a ticket.

I have seen there is also FESTAFF which seems like its more before the main action starts although I think you pretty much work all of the Weds & Thurs?

With Festaff you also have to do a second festival in the same year you do Glastonbury. 

[gooner1990]

16 minutes ago, Pinhead said:

My last Glasto one was 2011 so its probably changed a lot since then. Most of the time its gate work which takes up most of the staff I reckon, but traffic direction / control was another frequent shift...

What sort of shifts did you have (if you can remember?)

[gazzared]

1 minute ago, gooner1990 said:

What sort of shifts did you have (if you can remember?)

I had early Thursday, early Friday and night shift Saturday. Was a bit gutted to miss chemical brothers but I mustn't have been that gutted as I didn't bother going to see them when they toured later that year 🤣

[philipsteak]

Unless you get early shifts (arrive the Saturday before, work Sun, Mon, Tue. I think. Never had them. Very lucky to do so) you usually work an early, a late and an overnight. Not guaranteed to be that though, there are some slight variations. You've usually done one, sometimes two shifts before the weekend starts proper. Mostly working on the gates. Can be dull as fuck, can be a laugh.  Can be mad busy, can be very slow and quiet. 

I love it. It suits me well. None of the stress of trying to get a ticket. All my friends who go are also volunteers. Been doing it for so long I know a load of people. Having our own field/showers/food and such is great but the location is a pain. Especially when you're trudging back at 4am, or working on Gate D. Missing the fun can be shit, but I made my peace with that ages ago. It was worse when I had mates who went as punters and I had to leave them to go on shift. Other stewards are generally friendly and welcoming. Some can be a bit cliquey, but for any who are, there's way more who aren't. I'm sure we've been guilty of that ourselves but we try to be open and welcoming. The wider group keeps growing each year (neighbours, people on shift etc) so we must be OK. 

So as much as I love it, it's not for everyone. I've spoken to stewards (Glastonbury and other festivals) who've hated it. Not many, but a few. Hated the work, hated that they've had to miss favourite bands, gone solo cos they've heard how easy it is to meet people and then struggled.