When it comes to the festival season there’s nothing more exciting than checking out who will be playing and planning your route around to hear your favourite acts.
However, festivals can get pricey and summer breaks are a great time to earn money, save and live life a little too. Sounds too good to be true but there’s a way that the majority of those can be combined and found in festival volunteer work.
Below are 8 reasons I feel that you should really, really consider working in festivals this season. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
FREE Entry into Festivals
This is probably going to be the kicker for most people who want to volunteer/work at a festival. Whilst you may not get the full free roaming experience of being an attendee you do still get the atmosphere and even hear your favourite bands.
Getting to work/volunteer at a festival is a dream come true for many, it’s also a great way to increase the number of festivals you get to see on a yearly basis. When you consider the list you make of your must-see events and work out the time-off that will be needed plus costs, the fun soon stops.
Volunteering or working at festivals provides the perfect middle grown for visiting a number of events, experiencing them and also gaining credible work experience too. It’s a win-win!
Real-World Experience with Knowledgable Teams
Festivals and events of this nature are no joke. That means the teams you are added to will have leaders and experienced people all of which will have a large amount of knowledge of the industry and everything in between.
This is nothing but a positive for you to learn very quickly and get feedback just as instantly. The team together will help to explain things, how to improve on tasks and ultimately become an incredible asset to the team now and for any future roles you may take on.
Jack of all Trades
There is a split with this. Paid work at a festival generally requires you to stick to a role (that’s not to say you won’t be asked to do other roles sometimes) however, volunteer work is a little different.
Given the opportunity teams will take the help where they can, if trying new roles and learning new tasks on the fly is your thing then this will be great. Variety makes the volunteering experience even better!
See the Inner Workings
From a festival attendee standpoint, it’s nice to turn up to the event and everything is built but for the more curious it can be just as fun to see the field which is a blank canvas go up, then go back down.
Seeing massive structures being constructed, sound systems put in place, the inner workings of the camping setup and even how precise the parking management is. It can be an incredibly eye-opening experience with plenty to learn and use for future prospects.
New Friends & Opportunities
This could also be considered a major part of the experience too. If the events industry happens to be an area of interest and focus for your career then working behind the scenes with your fellow festival volunteers will not only create new friendships but also open up new opportunities.
There are few people who can say that they worked in festivals and were core to making the whole event happen. You will be able too.
But coming back to your career in events. Lets say you want to work with a food trader next time around, as a volunteer for the festival you get the chance to roam around and mix with the traders and teams, getting yourself known and becoming acquainted with individuals will give you a great chance to work in highly competitive areas such as festival food where roles are given away to friends and family.
Life Skills
You often find yourself at an event or festival complaining talking about how the whole place is dysfunctional, something is wrong here and overall just being critical.
Once you have had skin in the game you will have new found respect for the event organisers and overall, you will probably be a lot more chill because of it.
This is a great life skill to have – appreciate that things can get a little hectic from time to time but that’s what happens when you have so much going on around you, at all times.
Meet the Stars (if you are lucky)
One of the bigger more sort after perks of a festival is to mix and mingle with the stars. It’s generally a role-based perk so it requires some knowledge and understanding of which roles will have a higher chance of meeting the stars.
That being said you may bump into stars or come across them whilst you are grabbing some lunch. As you are part of the festival crew the areas that are off limit to you will inevitably be far and few between compared to attending, thus more chances to get to meet someone.
Community & Pride
Everyone has stories of their parties and favourite bands from a festival they attended but you get to give a story that very, very few others will talk about. So few that telling your stories may seem futile unless it’s to another fellow festival volunteer.
You get to talk about the artists that you met in the canteen, the tents that you set up for the VIPs, the huge structures being constructed and so on.
At the end of your time as a volunteer, you will inevitably be going back for more year on year or you will stick to the attendee list.
We’re working on a new app to help promotional and event staff easily find opportunities to work across various industries, with a variety of brands, endless products and all of which can be managed within one app.
