Oxfam seeks volunteers for 2024 music festival season, including Isle of Wight, Boomtown, Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds

Volunteers are given free entry in exchange for working three eight-hour shifts as stewards during the festival period, leaving them with plenty of time to revel in the atmosphere and enjoy the live acts.

Applications open on Thursday, February 1. 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.

As well as free entry to the festival, volunteers have access to a secure Oxfam campsite, a free meal voucher per shift, free phone charging, and free tea and coffee.

Last year their volunteers gave more than 206,000 hours of their time over the summer and helped raise £1.5m to support Oxfam’s poverty fighting work.

Head of festivals and events Michael Lever said: “We are so excited to welcome more volunteers than ever this year to join Oxfam at some of the UK’s best festivals across the summer.

“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.

All volunteers receive training and develop skills such as communication and organisation.

Visit the Oxfam Festivals website: festivals.oxfam.org.uk, or join the Facebook community to find out more.