5 Reasons Why You Should Volunteer At Festivals

You could be at any stage of your life and still stand to benefit from volunteering at festivals. (If that’s your bag. If not, being stuck in the mud, shivering to the sound of hard rock or techno might be your idea of hell.)

But if it is your bag, listen up! Volunteering at festivals works particularly well for students and other people who can’t afford the ever-rising price tag of music festivals, but also for those with a heart of gold, trying to inject some good will into society. Here’s a rundown of all the reasons you should volunteer at festivals.

You’ll have loads of fun

 Even if festivals aren’t your normal idea of fun, volunteering is a great entry-level festival experience, and a great way to lower yourself into the experience without burning out.

You don’t have to be out in the festival exhausting yourself the whole time – you have regular work breaks! As funny as this sounds, those 5-8 hour shifts are dead easy and mean you get solid experience for your CV and solid good karma for helping people out whilst enjoying the festival while you can.

There are always bands or performers that you’ll want to see, plus the array of festival food and sunny beers make for a great weekend away.

You can volunteer for charity

No one can deny the good karma of volunteering for charity, it’s widely seen as a more direct and helpful form of philanthropy than donating.

Oxfam is the main charity which works at festivals, but other smaller and less controversial ones are the Samaritans and Festival Concierge.

You’ll make loads of friends

There’s nothing like working in close quarters with sweaty, smelly strangers for a week for forming lifelong bonds.

Even if you’re not short of friends, the wide variety of people you’ll meet have the potential to change your life in other ways – the networking opportunities are boundless for music or entertainment industry hopefuls.

It builds your CV

Unless you’re in the anti-camping camp, there are few easier ways to work than volunteering at a festival. Volunteering for charity shows transferrable skills of commitment and diligence, and as such, is something that the most employable candidates have on their CVs.

Why not acquire a CV essential and a free ticket to a huge, expensive music festival at the same time?

You get a top notch campsite

The woes of festival campsites are widely documented. Whilst getting past your Reading and Leeds days might see the worst of it over, sloppy rivers of mud and toxic portaloos are still the norm at music festivals. Being three fields away from a toilet, or one tent away from one, are also common problems.

Whilst some of these issues can be avoided by arriving on site five hours before anyone else or paying £200 more than everyone else in the form of glamping, they can also be avoided for free, with added CV filler – working at festivals guarantees a campsite a notch above the rest.

Free, unlimited tea and coffee, a big, communal tent, phone charging and a safe distance from usable toilets are all included in the benefits of staff campsites.

Cristina studied English Literature and Hispanic Studies at Queen Mary University of London and now works as a writer and photographer. Catch her on Twitter, LinkedIn and her website.

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