Want to attend Download, Glastonbury, Reading/Leeds, ArcTanGent or Bearded Theory festival for free? Here's how you can do it, while also helping others

Glastonbury
(Image credit: Jim Dyson/Getty Images)

Fancy attending Download, Glastonbury, Reading/Leeds, ArcTanGent, 2000 Trees , Latitude or Bearded Theory festival for free this summer? You can do so if you volunteer to work at the festivals for Oxfam, taking on stewarding, campaigning, or shop volunteer duties for the charity.

Applications to volunteer for summer 2024 festivals - which also include Boardmasters, Boomtown, Isle Of Wight and more - are invited from tomorrow, February 1, on the Oxfam website. The charity is looking for 8,500 volunteers for what it describes as its “biggest summer of festivals yet.”

You’ll also get all the training you need, crew camping, a meal voucher for every shift, hot showers, free tea and coffee, and phone charging.

The charity says: “Oxfam Festival volunteering is a fantastic way to attend your favorite festivals, see some amazing acts, make new friends all whilst supporting Oxfam's work to end extreme poverty around the world.

“You can choose to be a steward providing directions to the festival-going public, checking wristbands, or patrolling campsites and arenas. A campaigner engaging with the public about Oxfam’s work or volunteering in one of our shops providing festival-goers with the latest fashions donated by our amazing supporters.

“You are supporting the festival with the smooth running of the event. In return for providing volunteers to a festival, Oxfam receives funds which help us in our work fighting against poverty.”

The full details are here. Please note that some of the volunteer roles are allocated on a first come, first served basis, while others involve a selection process.

Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.