Getting into a festival for free!
Friday 27 April 2012
With festival season fast approaching here’s a few ways to get yourself in for free! That’s right free, leaving you with extra cash to spend on your festival swag!
Lets face it, festival tickets alone are expensive and then you've got to buy all the festival essentials (daisy chains and Hunter wellies are essential, you know!) Then there's travel costs, food and beverages - it all adds up! And so, the team here at Closer have found a few cheeky ways to cut costs.
Volunteering
No major festival could function without the stewards, security, catering and other staff that help events run smoothly. If you are looking for a temporary job over the summer, like working at large outdoor events and enjoy working around large numbers of people then working at a festival could be for you…
There are so many different ways to work or help out at a festival, A lot of the work is voluntary, and often stewards will work for their tickets instead of getting a wage, often to the benefit of a charity such as Oxfam.
Oxfam provide stewards for a number of events. Oxfam stewards must be over 18 and be willing to volunteer for 3 x 8 1/4 hour shifts usually over 5 days of the festival, with the rest of your time free to enjoy yourself. Roles vary from ticket checking, and campsite patrols to arena venues and disabled access platforms. You are also asked to pay a fully refundable deposit which is returned to you after the festival. See the Oxfam website for more details.
VSC will again be joining with the important labour movement organisation Worker's Beer Company (www.workersbeer.co.uk) and will be organising volunteers at a range of festivals. As a volunteer, you get free entry, and at those where you need to camp, you stay in a reserved 'village' with toilets and hot showers plus some free food and drink. (You need to bring a tent and a sleeping bag). There is also free transport to some festivals from London and sometimes elsewhere. In exchange you will work a bar shift (6-8 hours) for which VSC will receive £6.50 per hour - funds which are crucial to enabling their campaigning throughout the year.
To register as a potential volunteer please contact vscassistant@yahoo.co.uk with the names of the festivals you would like to volunteer at.
Tell them what you can offer!
V, The National Young Volunteers service, has launched a new initative for 18-25 year olds to give them access to sold out music festivals in 2010. To get involved you have to tell V what you can offer each festival location, applications are judged by a panel who select the lucky few who will get to join the V team on the BigVBus. Some of the festivals include, Isle of Wight, T4 on the Beach and V Festival.
So if you think you’ve got skills be it music, photography or writing its definitely worth getting involved don’t forget to stand out from the crowd so get creative with your application! Those interested can find out more information and enter their application by logging on to www.vinspired.com/summerofgive
Are you an environment lover?
Last but not least environment lovers! Some festivals will use volunteers as litter pickers although most hire specific companies to take care of it, you should check out the festival website that you want to attend and they should have all the information about how you can get involved. Some litter picking will be paid work, while others will be voluntary, you may also have to pay a deposit and work after the festival is finished to earn your free ticket but hey it’s a free festival ticket so if your interested check out DCS site services and Network Recycling for information.