Volunteering 2025

[balti-pie]

8 minutes ago, philipsteak said:

 

 They weren't missed, they'd been a massive pain in the arse the previous shift, moaning for pretty much the whole 8 hours. I'm not the most naturally gregarious outgoing person but I really make an effort to keep my stewards happy and motivated, especially in a night shift, but Christ they made it tough

🤣🤣🤣 I can absolutely picture them in terms of age and demographic! The shifts go by so much quicker and easier if you engage with it, smile up and crack on, instead of standing there like a wet weekend moaning and complaining about being tired all the time. I do feel a bit for the supervisors - I just want to do my hours and get on, all the chivvying and appeasing of annoying and impossible to please people would get right on my wick. You’re far more patient than I 👍

[cp89]

This was my first year as a volunteer (recycling crew) and I had a great time, especially as I only got shifts like 10 days before the festival!

 

Met some great people and generally punters are very supportive of you when you're out and about on shift.

 

I was working evenings in the area around the Bread and Roses Bar and the Pyramid.

 

Our last set of bins had a great view of the Pyramid so we were able to take our breaks there, which worked out perfectly so I managed to see a lot of Pulp, Chic, etc.

 

Doing the bins around the early evening when people were eating dinner gave a good indication of which food places were good and which ones were bad, based on how much food went uneaten.

 

The large brown wok place at the end of the shops between the Pyramid and West Holts must've been awful, as the bins were absolutely rammed with boxes of uneaten noodles!

 

If anyone on here was on evening team 9, it was great to meet and work with you!

[philipsteak]

26 minutes ago, cp89 said:

This was my first year as a volunteer (recycling crew) and I had a great time, especially as I only got shifts like 10 days before the festival!

 

Met some great people and generally punters are very supportive of you when you're out and about on shift.

 

I was working evenings in the area around the Bread and Roses Bar and the Pyramid.

 

Our last set of bins had a great view of the Pyramid so we were able to take our breaks there, which worked out perfectly so I managed to see a lot of Pulp, Chic, etc.

 

Doing the bins around the early evening when people were eating dinner gave a good indication of which food places were good and which ones were bad, based on how much food went uneaten.

 

The large brown wok place at the end of the shops between the Pyramid and West Holts must've been awful, as the bins were absolutely rammed with boxes of uneaten noodles!

 

If anyone on here was on evening team 9, it was great to meet and work with you!

 

Ha, you should do a blog or a running live commentary so people know where to avoid.

[philipsteak]

44 minutes ago, balti-pie said:

🤣🤣🤣 I can absolutely picture them in terms of age and demographic! The shifts go by so much quicker and easier if you engage with it, smile up and crack on, instead of standing there like a wet weekend moaning and complaining about being tired all the time. I do feel a bit for the supervisors - I just want to do my hours and get on, all the chivvying and appeasing of annoying and impossible to please people would get right on my wick. You’re far more patient than I 👍

 

Thank you, but you know what, it's actually ok. I put off stepping up to supervisor for so long for similar reasons to you but they finally caught up with me and it turned out it was fine. It is more interesting, it helps the shifts go quicker and it forces me to be that person to help and engage the stewards which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Almost like playing a role, but not fake, if you see what I mean. As long as stewards remember that firstly, we don't know everything and secondly, we are volunteers too, everything is usually fine.

[mazola]

We also got the Oxfam D shift, but did mean I got to see pulp which was my one must see. No early stand down on Sunday though, but that was ok as we probably got the easiest gig. Nice sit down job on the gate to the oxfield checking wristbands of people coming back in to the camp, had lots of great chats with everyone coming in and out and could hear the pyramid stage.

[sedra]

2nd time volunteering with Oxfam and was really lucky to get great early shifts - 3pm -11pm Sun/Mon/Tues! Got to see whole festival and had no overnights. Was on Orchard crew pedestrian gates which was busy with T&C, West Holts and other crew going in and out of their campsites at Fanny’s and Parrocks. A few moans about  having to scan in and out with EPO’s as they were camped outside the fence this year. Great Gate managers, security and traffic stewards and friendly Oxfam team ( just 3 of us on this gate) Had to stop the Event Programmer for West Holts as he didn’t have his wristband  and also had to take a glass bottle of beer off him! A few DJ’s and people coming to get accreditation. Overall a great experience 😀 

Only got 4 shower tokens this year which meant rationing as was onsite for 10 days! 

[AlanFish23]

3 hours ago, philipsteak said:

 

If you go AWOL then yes, you lose your deposit (and get kicked out of caught) and are then blacklisted. 

Regarding calling in sick, you would possibly lose your wristband. Don't know the actual procedure. I've had that before where a couple of my stewards told Oxfam they couldn't complete their final shift on the Sunday and they then had to leave site.

It was last minute though so no time to update the shift sheets. 

It wasn't a problem. They weren't missed, they'd been a massive pain in the arse the previous shift, moaning for pretty much the whole 8 hours. I'm not the most naturally gregarious outgoing person but I really make an effort to keep my stewards happy and motivated, especially in a night shift, but Christ they made it tough

Interesting cheers. Yep I bet it must be tough at times as at the end of the day you are there to work for the 8 hours.

[philipsteak]

2 hours ago, sedra said:

2nd time volunteering with Oxfam and was really lucky to get great early shifts - 3pm -11pm Sun/Mon/Tues! Got to see whole festival and had no overnights. Was on Orchard crew pedestrian gates which was busy with T&C, West Holts and other crew going in and out of their campsites at Fanny’s and Parrocks. A few moans about  having to scan in and out with EPO’s as they were camped outside the fence this year. Great Gate managers, security and traffic stewards and friendly Oxfam team ( just 3 of us on this gate) Had to stop the Event Programmer for West Holts as he didn’t have his wristband  and also had to take a glass bottle of beer off him! A few DJ’s and people coming to get accreditation. Overall a great experience 😀 

Only got 4 shower tokens this year which meant rationing as was onsite for 10 days! 

 

 

Literally the perfect Oxfam shifts (as as you want earlier which I know not everyone does) 

 

I couldn't shower as I had a foot thing going on and couldn't get the dressing wet. Didn't fancy dealing with all that in a festival shower. My friends were happy though, extra shower tokens for them. And they still hugged me goodbye on the last day so I can't have smelt that bad!

Its the first time I've done a festival without showering since 1995. Wasn't actually that bad once you embraced it. I just had an extra coffee to wake me up rather than the shower.

[philipsteak]

19 minutes ago, AlanFish23 said:

Interesting cheers. Yep I bet it must be tough at times as at the end of the day you are there to work for the 8 hours.

 

The way I see it you have three choices. 

1. Throw yourself in to it. Enjoy your team, enjoy the punters, d*ck around during the quiet spells, learn each others life stories.

2. Sulk. Hopefully at least that only affects you. 

3. Moan about it and try to make everyone else as miserable as you are

[Aragorn]

4 hours ago, philipsteak said:

 

If you go AWOL then yes, you lose your deposit (and get kicked out of caught) and are then blacklisted. 

Regarding calling in sick, you would possibly lose your wristband. Don't know the actual procedure. I've had that before where a couple of my stewards told Oxfam they couldn't complete their final shift on the Sunday and they then had to leave site.

It was last minute though so no time to update the shift sheets. 

It wasn't a problem. They weren't missed, they'd been a massive pain in the arse the previous shift, moaning for pretty much the whole 8 hours. I'm not the most naturally gregarious outgoing person but I really make an effort to keep my stewards happy and motivated, especially in a night shift, but Christ they made it tough

 

There are some genuine cases. In the recycling centre they were telling me they've had a 3rd of the shift go off ill due to dirahoerra being passed around  so if you are genuinely sick you shouldn't go in. And if you have had diahoerra or puking day before but turn up to shift they will send you off shift as 48 hours needed to be safer you won't pass anything on. 

 

 

[germanmon]

Second Oxfam Glastonbury and just as good. Had worked out what my sacrifices were depending on shift pattern, but got a very good surprise on arrival with three mornings Weds Thurs Fri! It did mean I had to micro nap through Maribou State by the time we got to Friday night after three lots of 04:30 alarms, but all worth it to have a clear weekend.

 

A few 'sleb spots on early morning gates, and as always feels great to be helping happy smiley people coming in to the festival for the first time, or those returning after many ticketless years. 

 

Downside is I guess it can feel a bit cliquey at times or like everyone's part of a 'fun' group, but for anyone feeling like that, there's probably more volunteers just going about their business and enjoying their own festival in their own way - do it however you want/need to!

[pie_and_a_pint]

3 hours ago, cp89 said:

 

 

Doing the bins around the early evening when people were eating dinner gave a good indication of which food places were good and which ones were bad, based on how much food went uneaten.

 

The large brown wok place at the end of the shops between the Pyramid and West Holts must've been awful, as the bins were absolutely rammed with boxes of uneaten noodles!

 

 

This is such a good point about food! I do the 6am start on Theatre and Circus and for the last few years BY FAR the thing we pick up most is boxes from the pizza place at the top of Glebeland - almost without exception completely empty, which is a great sign about how bloody brilliant those pizzas are! 

[TheBoz]

Anyone know who runs the stewards around the venues around site with the pink tabards? I assumed it was Oxfam but don't think this is the case? 

[philipsteak]

14 minutes ago, TheBoz said:

Anyone know who runs the stewards around the venues around site with the pink tabards? I assumed it was Oxfam but don't think this is the case? 

 

My understanding is that it's different organisations, usually localish I think and they all have their area and have for years. A friend of a friend was working in The Park and it was a case of he knew someone who knew someone involved with the group that did The Park.

Could be mixing that up though so happy for someone who actually knows to correct me

[philipsteak]

1 hour ago, Aragorn said:

 

There are some genuine cases. In the recycling centre they were telling me they've had a 3rd of the shift go off ill due to dirahoerra being passed around  so if you are genuinely sick you shouldn't go in. And if you have had diahoerra or puking day before but turn up to shift they will send you off shift as 48 hours needed to be safer you won't pass anything on. 

 

 

 

Oh yeah, there's always gonna be genuine cases. 

And maybe my 2 were genuine? However...

[incident]

25 minutes ago, philipsteak said:

My understanding is that it's different organisations, usually localish I think and they all have their area and have for years.

 

Yeah, it's generally PTAs, Charities, Community Groups, Sports Clubs, etc from Somerset, Dorset, and Devon.

 

Almost unheard of for them to advertise or recruit externally.

[Emmilou182]

1 hour ago, TheBoz said:

Anyone know who runs the stewards around the venues around site with the pink tabards? I assumed it was Oxfam but don't think this is the case? 

I worked for one of these groups and they are called festive lizards. 
They work on the bus park for locals loading and unloading bags and directing people. They are local to the area and are a lovely group! Helped me out when my cause cancelled my place and took me on super last minute. 

[Chris_R]

4 hours ago, TheBoz said:

Anyone know who runs the stewards around the venues around site with the pink tabards? I assumed it was Oxfam but don't think this is the case? 

 

That's GFEL teams.

 

From the lists I have access to, it's a mix of schools swimming clubs, carnival clubs, small independent charities, and some small groups of NHS etc. They are pretty much exclusively from the counties surrounding Glasto - the only exception to that I can spot is the Wave Project which appears to be UK wide (and have a lot of teams deployed too!)

 

The guys we worked alongside on SE corner this year all appeared to work together outside the festival too, camped together, got in the same big van home etc. Whereas our team is a mix of people with a connection to the school - parents/teachers/their families/friends - so not as close knit, but getting more so with each time we work together.

[efcfanwirral]

14 hours ago, philipsteak said:

 

There used to be a formal informal bar crawl (as in not officially organised by Oxfam but it was a thing), not necessarily just for solos though. We never did them but they got a bit big and unwieldy in the end.

 

There was one, someone we met was in the Oxfam WhatsApp group so we joined it. Was very informal but did work for a few bars 

13 hours ago, cp89 said:

The large brown wok place at the end of the shops between the Pyramid and West Holts must've been awful, as the bins were absolutely rammed with boxes of uneaten noodles!

Bit of a tangent but I remember this at V Festival, there were noodles in a black box and there were just piles of them everywhere. Though I've never been able to look a noodles the same since (years ago, also at V) I saw a very drunk guy eat a big spoonful, immediately lie down and fall asleep, then return the noodles almost still fully formed to the tray a few seconds later. He then just got up and danced away. 

[Someones Mum]

Can anyone help me with a page monitor tool that works with captcha and logged in pages please? Just trying to scan for extra Oxfam places and sick of refreshing on the off chance more will come up! Thanks 😊 

[efcfanwirral]

1 hour ago, Someones Mum said:

Can anyone help me with a page monitor tool that works with captcha and logged in pages please? Just trying to scan for extra Oxfam places and sick of refreshing on the off chance more will come up! Thanks 😊 

Distill is what you need. But your laptop needs to be on, with the tab open, for it to work. Also set it to 5 minutes as a minimum, don't try any more frequently than that

[Pinhead]

I got three overnight shifts at Gate D, Sun to Tues, 11pm to 7am. Was as dead as a dodo - processed only 1 person on the Mon night! Only the quiz broke up the monotony. Got no sleep as back to tent by 8 am then about an hour or two sleep before being roasted out of the tent again. But at least it was all done and dusted by 7am Wed before the gates and had rest of festival!

 

Regarding no shows - the blacklist is shared with all other stewarding and volunteer orgs at Glasto and other festivals so it's not a great look to be on one. Plus you have to camp in their field so they'll chuck your stuff out along with you if you're kicked out.

[Helsbels]

On 30/06/2025 at 19:55, StoneCircle said:

 

Were these checks made before the physical ticket check and hand in of the Pass Out? I was in the wide load queue when I was approached.

Yep, we were checking before this point and quite a lot of the time especially on the overnight on Saturday security were also checking them

[Helsbels]

On 01/07/2025 at 07:50, philipsteak said:

How was everyone's experience? Both old hands and newbies. 

First time volunteering with Oxfam (got a last minute place 3 weeks before so was super grateful to be on the farm) and had a great experience although I did find it tiring as Im not used to being on my feet for 8 hours at a time especially on Friday in the blazing sun. 

I was on B shift which was pretty good and I didn't miss much I wanted to see. All on Gate C so always plenty of people coming and going so shifts went pretty quickly and were good fun. I think I was lucky getting here. Wednesday afternoon was checking tickets and great fun with everyone in an excited mood. Early Friday and overnight Saturday was checking wristbands before re-entry.  

Everyone I met was friendly both working and in the Oxfield. I loved being able to have a shower especially with the warm weather and it was great not having to lug everything through the site to find a camping spot. It was a bit of a trek but I just took whatever I needed out with me for the day.

Getting there on Monday was a massive bonus.

I must admit however that while I did really enjoy it, I would still prefer to have a ticket so I could go where I wanted when I wanted without having to think about being rested/sober enough for work and also due to the tiredness as I'm not spring chicken anymore.

Definitely considering doing more festivals with Oxfam next year 

[philipsteak]

8 hours ago, Helsbels said:

First time volunteering with Oxfam (got a last minute place 3 weeks before so was super grateful to be on the farm) and had a great experience although I did find it tiring as Im not used to being on my feet for 8 hours at a time especially on Friday in the blazing sun. 

I was on B shift which was pretty good and I didn't miss much I wanted to see. All on Gate C so always plenty of people coming and going so shifts went pretty quickly and were good fun. I think I was lucky getting here. Wednesday afternoon was checking tickets and great fun with everyone in an excited mood. Early Friday and overnight Saturday was checking wristbands before re-entry.  

Everyone I met was friendly both working and in the Oxfield. I loved being able to have a shower especially with the warm weather and it was great not having to lug everything through the site to find a camping spot. It was a bit of a trek but I just took whatever I needed out with me for the day.

Getting there on Monday was a massive bonus.

I must admit however that while I did really enjoy it, I would still prefer to have a ticket so I could go where I wanted when I wanted without having to think about being rested/sober enough for work and also due to the tiredness as I'm not spring chicken anymore.

Definitely considering doing more festivals with Oxfam next year 

 

Fair enough. I like that you threw yourself in to it but still know that it's not your preferred way in. 

The sober things isn't an issue for my, my two annual drinks didn't really impact! I do remember when I did still drink though. Yeah, it could impact on it 

Don't want to put you off but I would just say regarding the other festivals that shifts can impact more as the earliest you can start them is on the Thursday.