Shift Adjustments

We strive to make our festival volunteering roles accessible to everyone. However, we understand that some elements of the role can present barriers for some individuals with disabilities.

To help address these challenges, we offer adjustments – practical adaptations designed to reduce these barriers and support people with disabilities in successfully undertaking the stewarding role.

• Reducing physical demands: We can adjust your shifts to reduce the amount of standing or walking that your shifts entail, the distance which your shift locations are from the campsite, or ensuring your shifts are close to a toilet.
• Shift locations: We can arrange for all your shifts to be in the same location.
• Pairing: We can ensure that you are always volunteering alongside a specified volunteer.
• Shift Patterns: We can sometimes make an adjustment to ensure you have a shift pattern without an overnight shift if such patterns are available at that festival.

Please note that availability of adjustments varies depending on the festival and our roles there. In some situations there may be a limit to the availability of some adjustments.

For more information about which adjustments we can make at each festival, check out this page.

• Shift Structure: We are unable to make adjustments to the length or number of shifts, or the start and finish times of the shift patterns.
• Festival Environment: We are unable to control the festival environment and site conditions, however, we aim to provide as much information as possible to help you plan accordingly.
• Transport: We are unable to provide transportation around the festival site. However, if you are bringing a mobility aid, we will make sure there is somewhere to charge it in our campsite.

The NIMBUS Access Card is a widely recognised tool that helps individuals communicate their access requirements. Used by events and venues across the UK, it translates your disability or impairment into the social model of disability, which are shown in the form of symbols conveying the barriers you may face. This enables event organisers work with you to remove these barriers when volunteer at festivals.

Many of our festival partners already use the NIMBUS Access Card to help them offer accessibility services and facilities at their events.

From 2025, Oxfam will also be partnering with NIMBUS to better understand the access requirements of volunteers with disabilities and provide the adjustments they need.

If you’d like to request an adjustment, please follow these steps:

1. Get Your NIMBUS Access Card or Oxfam Digital Access Pass
   Before requesting adjustments, you need to obtain a NIMBUS Access Card or an Oxfam Digital Access Pass (more info below).
2. Access Your Profile
   Once you’ve signed up to volunteer with us, log in to your Profile. Navigate to the “More About You” page, where you’ll find a section to enter your Access Card number.
3. Request Adjustments
   After entering your Access Card number, go to the “My Festivals” section of your Profile. For each festival you’re volunteering at, tick the boxes next to the adjustments you’d like to request and save your selections.
4. Review and Follow-Up
   We’ll use the information linked to your NIMBUS account to assess your requirements and determine if we can provide the requested adjustments. Our team will aim to review your request within 28 days. If we’re unable to approve your request or need additional details, we’ll contact you directly. We won't cancel your festival volunteering place if we can’t approve your request for an adjustment. It’s up to you if you want to cancel.

Once you’ve requested an adjustment, you can return to your Profile at any time to check the status of your request.

To request adjustments for your volunteering role, you’ll need either a NIMBUS Access Card (or an Oxfam Digital Access Pass).

If you already have an in-date NIMBUS Access Card, you do not need to apply for a new one.

• You can apply for a NIMBUS Access Card here.
• The card costs £15 and is valid for three years.
• A NIMBUS Access Card can also be used to request accessibility support from many of our festival partners, as well as at hundreds of other venues, events, and attractions across the UK.

Alternatively, you can apply for an Oxfam Digital Access Pass here. A Digital Access Pass works like a NIMBUS Card, but you can only use it when applying for adjustments with Oxfam. It cannot be used when applying for accessibility support from festival organisers, or when attending other venues or events.

An Oxfam Digital Access Pass is also valid for three years, and is covered by Oxfam at a small cost to the charity.

The deadline for requesting adjustments is the same as the cancellation deadline for that festival. Unfortunately, we cannot accept adjustment requests after this deadline, including from those who sign up to volunteer after the deadline, as we need this time to process requests and build the volunteer rotas.

If you come to the festival without organising the adjustments you need in advance, it’s very unlikely we’ll be able to arrange them on-site, so it’s important to make sure that you request the adjustments you need before the deadline.

We can also make some adjustments to the campaigning role, which you can request on your Profile in the same way as for stewarding roles.

Unlike stewards, all campaigners at a festival perform the same tasks at the same times, so the range of adjustments we can offer is more limited. Be aware that campaigning is primarily a roaming role, involving a significant amount of walking and frequent social interaction. Please consider these aspects carefully before applying for this role.

For shop volunteer roles we use a risk assessment system similar to that used in your high-street Oxfam shop. If you are selected for a shop role, we will contact you about this separately - it is not part of the online application system.