Another year, another desperate scramble for Glastonbury tickets – nothing much has changed there. The nightmare of waking up at 8 in the morning to position yourself in front of your laptop, phone in one hand, the other hand hovering over your keyboard ready to keep mechanically hitting the refresh button the second the clock strikes nine. We still wake up in the middle of the night remembering the horror and panic of that day.
If you were one of the lucky ones who managed to navigate your way through this seemingly impossible technological assault course to get your hands on a pair of tickets then congratulations (we might have turned just a little green with envy but we’re only human after all!). For the rest of you who weren’t quite so lucky, don’t despair just yet because we here at HCX have some great advice for you that could mean instead of longingly watching Glastonbury on T.V. yet again next June, you could be there in person having the time of your life! No, we’re not teasing, you genuinely could still nab yourself a Glasto ticket and not just any ticket but a FREE Glasto ticket (as fellow students we know you’ll appreciate this means more money to spend in Topshop).
So how do you get one of these free tickets? Simple – instead of spending a fortune on a ticket just steward at Glastonbury instead! I’m sure you’ve all heard of Oxfam, but what surprisingly few people realise is that each year this incredible charity raises over one million pounds by unleashing hundreds of lovely volunteers upon the UK’s top festivals. It’s the perfect scenario. Oxfam raise much-needed money that will be turned into aid for some of the most vulnerable people in the world, the festivals get a swarm of yellow-tabarded volunteers who make the festivals generally happier and safer places to be and of course the volunteers themselves (you guys!) get a free ticket to some of the best festivals there are. Win, win for everyone then really.
Not only does stewarding with Oxfam give you the chance to spend you summer partying at an amazing variety of festivals (from Glastonbury and Reading to Boardmasters and Shambala) you get to experience your favourite festival from behind the scenes. One day you could be helping festival-goers navigate themselves (not particularly shockingly lots of people who’ve had a few too many have absolutely no idea where they are, let alone where there tent is) and the next behind the scenes on the main stage, unpredictable but always fun. Apart from being a great little addition to your CV- it’s surprising how great you can make festival stewarding sound with a few carefully placed pieces of terminology- stewarding guarantees you’ll make loads of fabulous new friends from all over the country – your phone will be almost as full of bizarrely-titled names like ‘girl from Bristol’ and ‘fit boy who likes Arctic Monkeys’ as it was in Fresher’s Week.
Oh, and did we mention stewards get their own campsite with charging points, free hot drinks, toilets and showers that won’t make your skin crawl? Trust us, once you’ve tried festivals the Oxfam way you won’t want to go back. Applications open in April next year but if you’re an especially keen bean (or dreadfully forgetful) then go to oxfam.org.uk/stewarding/apply and register your interest with Oxfam now and they’ll email you a reminder before applications open. Good luck!
Picture Credits: glastonburyfestivals.co.uk