Why volunteering rocks

Love music festivals but too skint to go to any? The solution my friends is volunteer stewarding! Music festivals tend to cost an arm and a leg, and with the vast majority of students not being able to haemorrhage cash, volunteer stewarding is the perfect solution for many. This scheme is not only a way to score you free passes to the summer’s hottest festivals, but is also a great way to help some worthwhile charities and meet some truly interesting people along the way.

There are a plethora of different charities that run volunteer stewarding schemes, but a particularly popular choice is Oxfam. Oxfam stewards a whole host of festivals including Glastonbury, Reading, and Bestival, to name but a few.

The first port of call for any wannabe Oxfam steward is the Oxfam website. Here you’ll find all the necessary information you need to sign up for a summer of stewarding fun. Once you’ve scrolled and clicked your way through the sign-up form, and handed over your deposit, you’re then all set to enter the heady world of festival stewarding.

So what will you be getting up to as a steward? Well, you’ll have to complete three shifts, each lasting eight hours. Shifts tend to be varied and can include directing traffic, assisting the public, and for a lucky few, stewarding the main stages. One of the many perks of stewarding is the rather fetching orange Oxfam tabard that you’re required to sport on shifts, giving you a heady sense of power as you strut around the festival site. Shifts normally fly by as you’re working alongside your fellow stewards, who make you laugh when things are going slowly and who are ready to support you and lend a hand when things get a bit more hectic.

In fact, the best part of stewarding is definitely your fellow stewards. Oxfam stewards are a motley crew, a rag tag bunch of people hailing from a host of different backgrounds, areas, and live very different lives. However, for a few days, within the bubble of the festival, they’re all united under a common goal…to steward. Whether working or having fun, your fellow stewards will always make your time at the festival more memorable. You’ll be spending a lot of time with these people and will have to rely on them often, so as the festival wears on you’ll genuinely grow together into a tight knit little stewarding family.

"Watching great bands in the knowledge that you didn’t have to shell out a fortune like the other punters around you is a feeling worth savouring..."

Many stewards arrive at festivals in groups, but for those of you anxious about coming alone - don’t be, you’ll find many others in the same boat. Going it alone can be brilliant as you are almost forced to be sociable. You’ll have a great excuse to talk to some random people and have a much more unique and rewarding experience as a result.

After toiling hard on shift, you’ll get the chance to see some of your favourite bands, savour the sights and sounds of the festival and generally let your hair down with your fellow volunteers. Standing within a throng of festivalgoers watching great bands safe in the knowledge that you didn’t have to shell out a fortune like the other punters around you is indeed a feeling worth savouring, and enjoying that experience with a warm, interesting bunch of people who you only recently met, makes the whole festival experience even more satisfying.

For many of us, festivals are ‘all about the music’. Maybe this is true. But volunteer stewarding can give you even more in a festival. As a steward you really get under the skin of a festival, in a way you just can’t do as a punter, whilst also forging new friendships and helping out some worthy charities along the way. So if you want a festival experience that is much more than just ‘about the music’, give volunteer stewarding a go, and I guarantee that your experience will be all the richer for it.