Volunteering 2024

[Greenelk]

On 11/22/2023 at 10:22 AM, incident said:

If I remember correctly - this year was different in that they realised people were camping out on the site looking for places (potentially not helped by a minor trick I posted to help people do so), so for what felt like a very long time after that they held off releasing places until that "official resale". I'm pretty sure that after that places came back in dribs and drabs as usual though.

Pretty certain the person was talking bullshit.

They were dropping them at weird time as well though.  A load of people (including 2 of my friends) got them at 11pm one Thusday night before the "official resale".  The other odd thing was on that night, ArcTangent was switching between sold out and available every few minutes, I'm guessing as a way to discourage page monitors as they were pinging constantly

[bob323]

33 minutes ago, Greenelk said:

They were dropping them at weird time as well though.  A load of people (including 2 of my friends) got them at 11pm one Thusday night before the "official resale".  The other odd thing was on that night, ArcTangent was switching between sold out and available every few minutes, I'm guessing as a way to discourage page monitors as they were pinging constantly

I got mine around 3-4weeks before at 7.05am

Edited November 23, 2023 by bob323

[Johnnyseven]

4 hours ago, Greenelk said:

They were dropping them at weird time as well though.  A load of people (including 2 of my friends) got them at 11pm one Thusday night before the "official resale".  The other odd thing was on that night, ArcTangent was switching between sold out and available every few minutes, I'm guessing as a way to discourage page monitors as they were pinging constantly

I got a spot (or I should say someone on here got it for me) at 10 or 11pm on a Monday a couple of weeks before the festival.

[agroovin]

Has anyone heard anything regarding recycling crew The website is back up

thanks

[giantkatestacks]

On 12/9/2023 at 5:06 PM, agroovin said:

Has anyone heard anything regarding recycling crew The website is back up

thanks

Yep paid our charity deposits.

[dondo]

On 12/9/2023 at 5:06 PM, agroovin said:

Has anyone heard anything regarding recycling crew The website is back up

thanks

Nothing for myself who goes direct as opposed to the charity route. 

[Giraffe Man]

25 minutes ago, dondo said:

Nothing for myself who goes direct as opposed to the charity route. 

Normally early jan for vets

 

[Skip997]

1 minute ago, Giraffe Man said:

Normally early jan for vets

 

This

I won't hear anything until early Jan

[balti-pie]

oxfam typically send out a pre-christmas email informing everyone that has priority what date from which they can apply  fro all the festivals - which is likely to be mid-january.

It'll open up to non-priority people a week later 👍 There's likely to be 2500 spots again, about 120 of them will be earlies - sun/mon/tues before it all starts. Not long to wait! 

[dondo]

1 hour ago, Giraffe Man said:

Normally early jan for vets

 

Yes. Been around Christmas/new year last couple of years

[pie_and_a_pint]

On 12/9/2023 at 5:06 PM, agroovin said:

Has anyone heard anything regarding recycling crew The website is back up

thanks

We paid our deposits to our charity today. I think the 'direct' recycling crew is a bit later. 

[Harebell]

Had an email from my charity and we have to pay £505 now and you should get a refund of £150 if you complete all your shifts. So the total cost to volunteer will be £355 (same as if I bought a ticket!). We have to be on site from Tues 25th June to Mon 1st July and only get one day off now?? 6 hour shifts. 

 

I love Glastonbury and have enjoyed volunteering for the recycling crew (on behalf of 2 different charities over 3 years) but this just seems crazy to me, very expensive and I personally find the work quite hard on my body. My team leader last year was also a bit of an arsy slave driver, which has put me off a bit too. I guess I won't be going this year then...

[Skip997]

2 minutes ago, Harebell said:

Had an email from my charity and we have to pay £505 now and you should get a refund of £150 if you complete all your shifts. So the total cost to volunteer will be £355 (same as if I bought a ticket!). We have to be on site from Tues 25th June to Mon 1st July and only get one day off now?? 6 hour shifts.

That's dreadful, basically paying to work with little free time.

[incident]

8 minutes ago, Harebell said:

Had an email from my charity and we have to pay £505 now and you should get a refund of £150 if you complete all your shifts. So the total cost to volunteer will be £355 (same as if I bought a ticket!). We have to be on site from Tues 25th June to Mon 1st July and only get one day off now?? 6 hour shifts. 

 

I love Glastonbury and have enjoyed volunteering for the recycling crew (on behalf of 2 different charities over 3 years) but this just seems crazy to me, very expensive and I personally find the work quite hard on my body. My team leader last year was also a bit of an arsy slave driver, which has put me off a bit too. I guess I won't be going this year then...

I'd raise that directly with the recycling crew - sounds like the charity are trying to pull a fast one here.

[Harebell]

4 minutes ago, incident said:

I'd raise that directly with the recycling crew - sounds like the charity are trying to pull a fast one here.

Quite likely, last year we gave an additional donation towards the charity - so didn't get all the deposit back, I didn't mind that as wanted to support the charity. But they were open about the donation - this might be a way for them to take a bigger 'donation' but without being so clear about it.

 

Any other charity volunteers here? Similar situation, or do they give you your full refund back? Could jump charities or just do general recycling crew I guess.

[stuie]

23 minutes ago, Harebell said:

Had an email from my charity and we have to pay £505 now and you should get a refund of £150 if you complete all your shifts. So the total cost to volunteer will be £355 (same as if I bought a ticket!). We have to be on site from Tues 25th June to Mon 1st July and only get one day off now?? 6 hour shifts. 

 

I love Glastonbury and have enjoyed volunteering for the recycling crew (on behalf of 2 different charities over 3 years) but this just seems crazy to me, very expensive and I personally find the work quite hard on my body. My team leader last year was also a bit of an arsy slave driver, which has put me off a bit too. I guess I won't be going this year then...

Sorry but that's outrageous and you need to pass this up the chain directly to GFL if necessary.  It doesn't sound right to me at all.  Just because the positions are sough after, it doesn't mean the terms should become so unfavourable.

Also important but on a lesser scale - please feedback on your arsy slave driver team leader if you feel they acted out of line.  Some people shouldn't be put in roles of such responsibility but if no one gives feedback then they are free to continue to act in this way. 

[pie_and_a_pint]

16 minutes ago, incident said:

I'd raise that directly with the recycling crew - sounds like the charity are trying to pull a fast one here.

My charity sent me the exact same wording, so it's obviously the standard message from the Festival.

I'm not entirely sure why we're being charged the same price as a ticketholder, TBH, and have queried it, as I'd expect it to be the other way round (as in, get the £355 back and the £150 is the cost to attend) as it was in previous years.

 

[stuie]

1 minute ago, pie_and_a_pint said:

My charity sent me the exact same wording, so it's obviously the standard message from the Festival.

I'm not entirely sure why we're being charged the same price as a ticketholder, TBH, and have queried it, as I'd expect it to be the other way round (as in, get the £355 back and the £150 is the cost to attend) as it was in previous years.

I'm actually gobsmacked that you are paying anything to volunteer!  That's not how volunteering works - you pay with your time. 

I'm aware Festaff charge a small admin fee for some reason or another - I'm not sure why the admin cost doesn't come from their profits though, being a profit making company and not a charity. 

[Harebell]

17 minutes ago, pie_and_a_pint said:

My charity sent me the exact same wording, so it's obviously the standard message from the Festival.

I'm not entirely sure why we're being charged the same price as a ticketholder, TBH, and have queried it, as I'd expect it to be the other way round (as in, get the £355 back and the £150 is the cost to attend) as it was in previous years.

 

Hey lovely, think we're with the same Berks/Hants based charity though!

[pie_and_a_pint]

13 minutes ago, stuie said:

I'm actually gobsmacked that you are paying anything to volunteer!  That's not how volunteering works - you pay with your time. 

I'm aware Festaff charge a small admin fee for some reason or another - I'm not sure why the admin cost doesn't come from their profits though, being a profit making company and not a charity. 

The £150 is a charity donation, though. It goes to the charity I work for, not to GFL. Last year (and every other year I've worked) it's been £150 to charity + the cost of a ticket as a refundable security bond. I'm therefore assuming someone's sent the email wrongly. Or they're taking the piss.

[pie_and_a_pint]

1 minute ago, Harebell said:

Hey lovely, think we're with the same Berks/Hants based charity though!

Yes, I think we are - but I the email they sent is standard wording from the festival, and I think it's the wrong way round! We should be paying £150 as our donation and the ticket cost is a security deposit that we get back. I think someone in the festival office has got it confused! Have emailed Fiona at the Festival to check (but may not get a reply until next year, I realise, as she's always super busy!)

[Harebell]

25 minutes ago, stuie said:

Sorry but that's outrageous and you need to pass this up the chain directly to GFL if necessary.  It doesn't sound right to me at all.  Just because the positions are sough after, it doesn't mean the terms should become so unfavourable.

Also important but on a lesser scale - please feedback on your arsy slave driver team leader if you feel they acted out of line.  Some people shouldn't be put in roles of such responsibility but if no one gives feedback then they are free to continue to act in this way. 

We did, he was working us very hard with not enough breaks for getting water and going to the toilet really, and I felt unwell after a day of this. It did improve a tiny bit after my husband fedback our experience, but only a bit. He was a personal friend of the lady in charge of recycling so don't think complaining would/will help.

Edited December 12, 2023 by Harebell
spelling

[stuie]

2 minutes ago, pie_and_a_pint said:

The £150 is a charity donation, though. It goes to the charity I work for, not to GFL. Last year (and every other year I've worked) it's been £150 to charity + the cost of a ticket as a refundable security bond. I'm therefore assuming someone's sent the email wrongly. Or they're taking the piss.

I had no idea that this went on tbh.  My donation to Oxfam is my time with an optional donation at the end of the season.  They get paid on our behalf, so I assumed the same was the case with all charity volunteers.

[incident]

1 minute ago, pie_and_a_pint said:

The £150 is a charity donation, though. It goes to the charity I work for, not to GFL. Last year (and every other year I've worked) it's been £150 to charity + the cost of a ticket as a refundable security bond. I'm therefore assuming someone's sent the email wrongly. Or they're taking the piss.

I would consider that normal practice is the Festival provides the donation, not the volunteer.

In the case of Oxfam at Glastonbury, I believe they recieve approx £250 per steward by GFL, and there's no net cost (whatsoever) to the volunteer. The same applies at other festivals, albeit I believe with a less generous donation rate.

[Skip997]

10 minutes ago, stuie said:

I had no idea that this went on tbh.  My donation to Oxfam is my time with an optional donation at the end of the season.  They get paid on our behalf, so I assumed the same was the case with all charity volunteers.

Neither did I. To the best of my knowledge charities get paid on our behalf as well, but it's unclear as we're not associated with any particular charity. We don't pay a deposit or get asked for any donation.

The more info I get the luckier I feel about my position at Glastonbury.