Oxfam seeks 8,500 volunteers for ‘biggest ever year of festivals’
Melanie May | 31 January 2024 | News
Oxfam is looking for 8,500 volunteers for its biggest ever year of festivals – attending events including Glastonbury, Reading, Latitude, Isle of Wight and Boardmasters.
Volunteers get free entry in exchange for their time spent stewarding, and are required to work three eight-hour shifts during the festival period. They are also given access to secure camping in the Oxfam campsite, a free meal voucher per shift, free phone charging, and free tea and coffee.
Applications open tomorrow, Thursday 1 February and places are given on a first-come first-served basis.
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Roles vary across events but can involve checking tickets and wristbands at the gates, patrolling the arenas and campsites, or supporting accessible viewing platforms by the stages. All volunteers receive training.
Last year, Oxfam volunteers gave over 206,000 hours of their time over the summer and helped raise £1.5 million for the charity.
Michael Lever, Head of Festivals and Events, said:
“We have been providing volunteer stewards at the UK’s biggest and best festivals for over 30 years now, after first taking our volunteers to Glastonbury in 1993. We’ve come a long way since then and people can now join us at 15 festivals across the UK and by doing so raise money for Oxfam.
“We’ve built a friendly and passionate community of volunteers and many of them have been coming back year after year with some attending over 100 festivals with Oxfam.
“We’ll also continue to have volunteers to support our campaigning and last year we provided an opportunity for tens of thousands of people to sign our Climate Justice campaign and join in Oxfam’s collective activism.”
The full list of festivals for 2024 includes: Bearded Theory, Download, Isle of Wight, Glastonbury, 2000Trees, Latitude, WOMAD, Wilderness, Boardmasters, Boomtown Fair, ArcTanGent, Beautiful Days, Shambala, Reading and Leeds.
Volunteers can apply for as many festivals as they like with one deposit which will be returned to them once they have completed their shifts. The price of the deposit varies depending on the festival.
By volunteering at two or more festivals in one season, volunteers are awarded priority status for the following year and able to sign up before applications open to the general public. Oxfam also offers support to make volunteering accessible, such as allocating volunteers to specific accessible roles, providing a closer parking space, or bringing a Personal Assistant on-site.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.