Oxfam Steward Review Glastonbury

The shifts are given to you on arrival and are totally random. Does not matter if it’s your first time or have been a steward 10 times before. I was very lucky to get myself on the villager gate entrance which was super calm compared to the normal pedestrian gate.

The shifts were ( and each team will do the same just different days )

• Saturday – Overnight 10pm -> 6am
• Friday – Morning 6am -> 2pm
• Sunday – Evening  2pm -> 10pm

You can choose before you shift to be on Early Arrivals or Later departures which means your MIGHT ( its not definite you will get these , again random ) shifts don’t overlap with Glastonbury performances

Pros

• Private Oxfam Campsite Oxfield only accessible via Oxfam Staff
• Camping VERY close to Oxfam Private Carpark ( 1 minute walk )
• Private compostable poterloos ( Smell less )
•  24hr access to hot water for Tea and Coffee and Milk
• Indoor area to hang out in wet or super warm weather
• A place to wash up your dishes and wash your teeth
• Easy to leave the venue and return to the same car park space
• Meals provided for shift x 3
• Hot Shower Tokens Provided x 4
• Cheap Food and Bar on the campsite
• Theres an Oxfam bus to take you to gates that are a long walk , you need to work correct times to catch this or you will be left to walk!
• A Free place to charge your phone
• Oxfam volunteers organise bar crawls so you get to meet other people and learn where things are!
• Snacks and Tea and Coffee while on your shift and a 30 minute break
• Your festival ticket cost actually goes to Oxfam as a donation , they raise around 500K GBP per festival for the charity
• Food venues around Glastonbury provide discount to volunteers you just need to ask 🙂 . A paella place was doing a large size for small pricing which was a 4GBP saving. Join the Facebook and Watsapp groups for realtime
• Access to Crew bars! There a specific bars only allowed for Crew and Volunteers which are usually less busier and less crowded.

Cons

• Oxfam Camping is under an electic Pylon
• You have to wear your high vis
• You can swap shifts , but you have to swap all 3 x Shifts you can’t swap only one. There is a notice board to contact people for this and you can list your shifts and what you would like to swap too.
• You have to arrived 30 minutes before you shift for Handover

If you don’t turn up to any of your shifts your deposit does not get refunded and they also deactivate your wristband which means you can’t leave the festival ground. We had someone do the first shift and not turn up to any of the following. We had another person who was ill , and he was allowed to leave and would need to do another shift to get his deposit 280 GBP refunded.

You also need to make sure you return you High Vis , or this will be deducted from your deposit.

You have to turn up sober to your Shift which is noted ‘as the legal limit to drive a car’ however, interestingly there were no breathalizers. Previous experience from other festivals means if your supervisor detects anything they can ask you do one.