Volunteering 2021

[gazzared]

2 minutes ago, Leyrulion said:

With the caveat that it could change this year, it's not always guaranteed to be there.

yeah was thinking that becuase they said theyre having more volunteers this year but maybe theyll use 2019 festaffs field aswell or use more of the car parks for the camper vans and motorhomes 🤷‍♂️

[Flysheet]

36 minutes ago, gazzared said:

yeah was thinking that becuase they said theyre having more volunteers this year but maybe theyll use 2019 festaffs field aswell or use more of the car parks for the camper vans and motorhomes 🤷‍♂️

There’s 400 of us for Festaff need somewhere to Kip as well!

[Watergirl]

1 hour ago, gazzared said:

no probs, I used the map to work out it was 1.5km to williams green from the oxfam field as I used to meet my friends there but it felt much further in the heat of 2019 haha

For many years I have camped at Hitchin Hill, so I am used to the uphill trek at night. This seems to be about the same distance to the Pyramid field - just a little further. But near enough to the Acoustic where I also go a lot.  NB - I realize it is not guaranteed it'll be in the exact same spot..

[blutarsky]

Is there anything stopping an Oxfam volunteer camping in general camping, as long as they still do their shifts? 
Obviously it’s be giving up free meals etc… 

[stuie]

19 minutes ago, blutarsky said:

Is there anything stopping an Oxfam volunteer camping in general camping, as long as they still do their shifts? 
Obviously it’s be giving up free meals etc… 

You’ll enter oxfam camp from the car park so leaving with your stuff to go into the main festival would be obvious.  In 2019, I had a space in a tent with my friends at Michaels Mead and I ‘accidentally’ slept there a few times and went back for my shower and meals. Not much can be done about that if you see what I mean 😂

[Losing my hair]

1 hour ago, blutarsky said:

Is there anything stopping an Oxfam volunteer camping in general camping, as long as they still do their shifts? 
Obviously it’s be giving up free meals etc… 

Very much frowned upon by the festival.

I heard (i.e. this may not be  true) of a Festaff volunteer who was thrown out of the festival for camping in general camping in 2017 but I think there were other issues as well - not turning up for shifts - but they did go looking for her.

[not worthy]

1 hour ago, stuie said:

You’ll enter oxfam camp from the car park so leaving with your stuff to go into the main festival would be obvious.  In 2019, I had a space in a tent with my friends at Michaels Mead and I ‘accidentally’ slept there a few times and went back for my shower and meals. Not much can be done about that if you see what I mean 😂

This.

You'll have to pitch in the Oxfield for the days pre Wednesday anyway. So if you have friends on-site just stay with them and leave your stuff in the Oxfield.

As long as you do your shifts....all good

[amfy]

2 hours ago, blutarsky said:

Is there anything stopping an Oxfam volunteer camping in general camping, as long as they still do their shifts? 
Obviously it’s be giving up free meals etc… 

I actually think you’d need 2 tents! As Oxfam volunteers we arrive before the gates open and at that point you’d have to cap in the Oxfam field. As some people have said, you can’t be noticed leaving for the main site as they would think you were trying to do a runner from your shifts even if you weren’t, & camping in the Oxfield is one way they keep track of those who do. Once you were in the main site it’d be harder to cancel your wristband as you no longer need to go in and out and get your wristband scanned.

[stuie]

43 minutes ago, Losing my hair said:

Very much frowned upon by the festival.

I heard (i.e. this may not be  true) of a Festaff volunteer who was thrown out of the festival for camping in general camping in 2017 but I think there were other issues as well - not turning up for shifts - but they did go looking for her.

I'd say the main issue there was not doing the shifts. 

Sure, they want you to camp in Oxfield - it's a way of keeping control and it also means that the prime festival real estate is reserved for those who've paid £££ - but the reality is, when the gates open, no one has a clue where you are or what you are doing. 

Do the shifts though everyone...  don't be a dick! 

[dondo]

In 2010 when I was on recycling crew there was someone in our team who camped with his mates and not in Tom's Field. He asked our team leader if he needed to walk up there of a morning or just meet us at West Holts where we were picking and where the register was taken.  She said that was fine and fair play to the bloke he was there waiting every morning when we arrived. 

[Flysheet]

1 hour ago, Losing my hair said:

Very much frowned upon by the festival.

I heard (i.e. this may not be  true) of a Festaff volunteer who was thrown out of the festival for camping in general camping in 2017 but I think there were other issues as well - not turning up for shifts - but they did go looking for her.

There were a few Festaff crew that got marched off site at a festival last summer for not playing by the rules, and this was only a little one. 

[jfaragher]

2 hours ago, blutarsky said:

Is there anything stopping an Oxfam volunteer camping in general camping, as long as they still do their shifts? 
Obviously it’s be giving up free meals etc… 

I think that it also breaches Oxfam's agreement with the festival.  As a rule, the festival requires crew to camp in their designated areas and not in public camping - it's one of those "what if everone did it?" issues.

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

Just completed my ELIT training, now I'm all set for the online training in a few weeks time, and we're a go! Today's training video, plus the fact that it's ticket day and there's not a cloud in the sky in Somerset today has just cranked the excitement levels up a notch

[incident]

Camping in public areas before the festival starts is an absolute non starter these days - security do sweep the site on Tuesday evening and to a lesser extent first thing Wednesday and will take down any tents they find.

Obviously once the gates open it becomes impossible to police, but as has been mentioned - taking down your tent on Wednesday and moving it will almost certainly be noticed. So there'd need to be a second tent, which creates a problem for leaving - you'd have to go back to retrieve your other tent, which would be a right pain in the arse, because obviously abandoning it would be an arsehole move.

Edited March 24, 2022 by incident

[Chazeboy]

33 minutes ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

Just completed my ELIT training, now I'm all set for the online training in a few weeks time, and we're a go! Today's training video, plus the fact that it's ticket day and there's not a cloud in the sky in Somerset today has just cranked the excitement levels up a notch

we did ours last night (the ELIT) and our online is in May, but yeah excitement levels couldn't be higher

[Tr234]

Is the ELIT training part of Oxfam? 

I have booked my online training for April but can't see any other training listed.

First time volunteering so want to make sure I'm all sorted 😄

 

[BambooShanks]

1 hour ago, incident said:

Obviously once the gates open it becomes impossible to police, but as has been mentioned - taking down your tent on Wednesday and moving it will almost certainly be noticed.

When I volunteered for Stuart Security in '17, they had a guard at the exit of the camp checking bags to make sure no one was trying to do a runner.  Those that they suspected had their wristbands cut off and escorted off site.  

It was extreme but from what I saw of the supervisors, they were losing loads of stewards so had to be draconian. 

 

[gooner1990]

1 minute ago, BambooShanks said:

When I volunteered for Stuart Security in '17, they had a guard at the exit of the camp checking bags to make sure no one was trying to do a runner.  Those that they suspected had their wristbands cut off and escorted off site.  

It was extreme but from what I saw of the supervisors, they were losing loads of stewards so had to be draconian. 

 

Blimey, did that happen to many?

When I worked for Shelter in 2019 about 40 people ran off into the festival once we had been given wristbands and didn't do a single shift.

I came back one night and the security were checking wristband EPO numbers against a list of people they knew who had run off just in case they tried to come back in to collect more belongings.

9 of the people were from my shift on Stonebridge bar which is busy at the best of times let alone with a 1/3 of your bar workers nowhere to be seen.

Twats.

[BambooShanks]

3 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Blimey, did that happen to many?

I saw it happen to a couple of guys who had packed up most of their stuff (think they left an empty tent) and felt like I heard the Security Guards shout "RUNNER! RUNNER!"  and go chasing after them a fair few times when I was in the camp on the wednesday / thursday.

I was even treated with a lot of suspicion when I arrived.  I was on the standby list so only got the call that I had a glasto place on wednesday morning so only managed to get to the festival at 9pm ish. 

My friends had taken my tent into the fest for me so I had only brought the absolute bare essentials with me and as such, needed to meet up with them to get my tent.  However the supervisor on shift wouldn't give me a wristband as quite a lot of people have already done a runner (hence why I was even there in the first place) so wasn't willing to risk it, even though I was willing to leave all my stuff in camp.  

I ended up having to sleep in my sleeping bag in the catering tent as my mate was too twisted to get back to his camp, pull down my tent and walk from south park to gate B - which to be fair, in any state I would not expect anyone to do, especially after a gruelling wednesday. 

 

[gooner1990]

7 minutes ago, BambooShanks said:

I saw it happen to a couple of guys who had packed up most of their stuff (think they left an empty tent) and felt like I heard the Security Guards shout "RUNNER! RUNNER!"  and go chasing after them a fair few times when I was in the camp on the wednesday / thursday.

I was even treated with a lot of suspicion when I arrived.  I was on the standby list so only got the call that I had a glasto place on wednesday morning so only managed to get to the festival at 9pm ish. 

My friends had taken my tent into the fest for me so I had only brought the absolute bare essentials with me and as such, needed to meet up with them to get my tent.  However the supervisor on shift wouldn't give me a wristband as quite a lot of people have already done a runner (hence why I was even there in the first place) so wasn't willing to risk it, even though I was willing to leave all my stuff in camp.  

I ended up having to sleep in my sleeping bag in the catering tent as my mate was too twisted to get back to his camp, pull down my tent and walk from south park to gate B - which to be fair, in any state I would not expect anyone to do, especially after a gruelling wednesday. 

 

Dear me, it just shows how much of this stuff goes on all over the place with everything from security, bar staff, stewards etc etc.

What sort of work were you doing? Suppose it was worth it to get into the festival whatever it was!

[BambooShanks]

10 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Dear me, it just shows how much of this stuff goes on all over the place with everything from security, bar staff, stewards etc etc.

What sort of work were you doing? Suppose it was worth it to get into the festival whatever it was!

It was the worst I've seen in the years I've volunteered.

The (paid!) work wasn't even that bad.  I was mainly stewarding the access roads in the festival so was basically stopping foot traffic when cars and vans were entering and exiting the routes.  

The atmosphere back at camp and the attitude of the supervisors left a lot to be desired  - explainable by the stresses of losing so many stewards I guess but definitely soured the experience for me somewhat.   

Either way, I was in the festival so that's all that mattered!

[gooner1990]

1 minute ago, BambooShanks said:

It was the worst I've seen in the years I've volunteered.

The (paid!) work wasn't even that bad.  I was mainly stewarding the access roads in the festival so was basically stopping foot traffic when cars and vans were entering and exiting the routes.  

The atmosphere back at camp and the attitude of the supervisors left a lot to be desired  - explainable by the stresses of losing so many stewards I guess but definitely soured the experience for me somewhat.   

Either way, I was in the festival so that's all that mattered!

hmmm. well at least that rules out doing that in the future!

i'd like to try FESTAFF next time or OXFAM

(if needed)

[BambooShanks]

4 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

hmmm. well at least that rules out doing that in the future!

i'd like to try FESTAFF next time or OXFAM

(if needed)

They are very much at the bottom of the list for options as far as I'm concerned.  

Bar work at Shelter is usually my go to.  Great people and fun work so would always recommend them for future festivals.

[gooner1990]

2 minutes ago, BambooShanks said:

They are very much at the bottom of the list for options as far as I'm concerned.  

Bar work at Shelter is usually my go to.  Great people and fun work so would always recommend them for future festivals.

I did Shelter bar work in 2019....was fine, but I struggled to make friends and lots of people ran off from our shift so had to work doubly has hard.

Would do it again if I had to.

Edited March 24, 2022 by gooner1990

[stuie]

32 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Dear me, it just shows how much of this stuff goes on all over the place with everything from security, bar staff, stewards etc etc.

What sort of work were you doing? Suppose it was worth it to get into the festival whatever it was!

I know this doesn’t tie up with your experience but I think most of the organisations expect some ‘runners’ so build this into their models to a certain extent!