Working at festivals...How do you get involved?

Anything and everything that's live and entertaining. Including stand up comedians, theatre performances, gigs, festivals and concerts (and magic shows).

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  1. dulciemae's Avatar
    • Adored and Respected Member
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    Working at festivals...How do you get involved?
    I'm on a gap year after this summer and working at a festival sounds awesome! anyone got any advice on how I get involved/what it's like to volunteer at a festival? Thanks if you can help in advance!

    Also, is it weird to go by yourself? I'm hoping not everyone will have come with friends and just stick to them all weekend?!
    Last edited by dulciemae; 01-04-2012 at 11:24.
  2. curtis871's Avatar
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    Re: Working at festivals...How do you get involved?
    Look at hotbox for volunteering at Reading, Leeds and one other. I've not done it before (applied this year) so can't say what it's like but hopefully good . As for jobs I don't know any where they're still taking applicants but I'll bump this so hopefully someone will do.
  3. CherryCherryBoomBoom's Avatar
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    • Location: Wondaland
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    Re: Working at festivals...How do you get involved?
    I've been considering it too. I tried to last year, but by the time I was aware of festival volunteering, I was either too late to apply, or some of them just clashed with my holiday abroad. I think I either Googled "festival volunteering" or Googled festivals in my region then went to their individual sites to look up info about working for them.

    I've never really been to one of these proper music festivals before, so I'm wondering whether it's a better experience to buy tickets to go as a guest, or do volunteering and see acts for free?
  4. thefish_uk's Avatar
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    • Location: London / Birmingham
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    Re: Working at festivals...How do you get involved?
    (Original post by dulciemae)
    I'm on a gap year after this summer and working at a festival sounds awesome! anyone got any advice on how I get involved/what it's like to volunteer at a festival? Thanks if you can help in advance!

    Also, is it weird to go by yourself? I'm hoping not everyone will have come with friends and just stick to them all weekend?!
    As well as Hotbox there's also Oxfam - don't think that by working for Oxfam you'll be doing charity campaigning type work (although they do that at a lot of festivals), they also provide proper stewarding services (the arrangement being that there's a very small number of paid staff who do the planning, then your wage gets donated to Oxfam).

    I've stewarded for Oxfam a few times. In some of those, Hotbox stewards were also present. I have no doubt that Oxfam is a more professionally run operation and the people care more about doing their jobs well but they are more expensive to the festivals than Hotbox which is why festivals which use them also use Hotbox - generally the Oxfam lot get the jobs which are actually critical (e.g. putting on and checking wristbands, managing disabled viewing platforms), the Hotbox stewards get the jobs which involve standing in the field being asked questions by the public.

    You also see people involved in recycling at these festivals - I think some of them are volunteers too but I don't know who provides them?

    (Original post by CherryCherryBoomBoom)
    I've never really been to one of these proper music festivals before, so I'm wondering whether it's a better experience to buy tickets to go as a guest, or do volunteering and see acts for free?
    Either, really. I guess if you cared about doing your volunteering job as well as possible (but, frankly, a lot of volunteers don't) it'd be sensible for you to have been to one so you already have an idea of how a festival works and what the customer experience is... but really not essential!
    Last edited by thefish_uk; 01-04-2012 at 15:49.
  5. Guitarded's Avatar
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    Re: Working at festivals...How do you get involved?
    festaff.co.uk
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