The Impact of Festival Volunteering

Oxfam’s festival stewards play a crucial role in ensuring the smooth running of festivals, providing friendly and professional support to festivalgoers and organisers. In exchange for their time, festivals pay Oxfam for each steward's hours worked.

In 2025, this commitment raised an incredible £1.6 million, directly supporting Oxfam's life-saving projects around the world.

The money raised enables us to act fast to save lives in emergencies, provide sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty, and tackle the root causes of inequality on a global scale.

Oxfam’s on-site festival shops offer festivalgoers a wide range of second-hand festival fashion finds.

In 2025, our dedicated shop volunteers worked tirelessly across eight festivals, raising an outstanding £305,882 to fund Oxfam’s critical work.

Not only did our shops help raise vital funds, but they also had a positive environmental impact. By promoting second-hand shopping and encouraging festivalgoers to choose pre-loved items, we saved 6,453kg of clothing and goods from ending up in landfill. This contributes to reducing waste and promoting a circular economy, both key elements in the fight against climate change.

This year, our campaigners highlighted hidden humanitarian crises.

35,767 festival-goers signed a solidarity statement demanding an end to “radio silence” on the world’s forgotten emergencies. As a thank you, participants received an exclusive Radio Silence audiobook, packed with stories, playlists, and ways to stay involved long after the festival. Of the 35,767 festivalgoers engaged by our campaigners, 844 have also been inspired to give a regular gift to Oxfam, raising thousands of pounds for Oxfam.

Through interactive activities and discussions, our volunteers helped spark important conversations, encouraging festival attendees to stand with communities around the world.

Whether stewarding, working in festival shops, or campaigning for climate justice, our festival volunteers are part of Oxfam’s global community, fighting for change. Their dedication, passion, and hard work directly fund life-saving projects, protect the environment, and inspire change on a global scale.

Collectively, our amazing family of volunteers has an unmeasurable impact that expands well beyond the festival field.

Oxfam believes that poverty is an injustice that can and must be overcome – so everyone has the power to thrive, not just survive.

We believe that by standing together with communities around the world to speak out against injustice – working in the toughest places on earth and tackling the inequalities that exacerbate poverty – a kinder and radically better world is possible.

Last year, Oxfam and partners supported 9.8 million people around the world to fight poverty. By responding fast when an emergency hits, funding long-term development work, and campaigning and putting pressure on world leaders to tackle the injustices that cause poverty.

Meet Kornelia who, alongside her neighbours has transformed their community’s access to water. Working together with Oxfam partners, they built a large concrete water tank, piped directly to each home, and constructed reservoirs and terraced gardens to conserve rainwater. These measures ensure a reliable water supply for households and farms throughout the year.

The availability of clean water has had a profound impact. Families can now use water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and irrigation without the long, exhausting journeys to wells. Farmers have more time to cultivate a variety of crops, including vegetables, coffee, betel nuts, and fruit trees. This not only improves household nutrition but also generates income, helping families pay for education and participate in community savings programs.

“Now we have water available, so we don’t have to spend much time to look for water anymore. This allows us to do household chores, and as farmers we have time to plant trees, and work on our farm.”

The HAMRIIK project supports 650 vulnerable households across Oecusse and Liquiça, promoting climate-smart agriculture, sustainable land use, and water conservation. Kornelia’s community is a clear example of how access to clean water, combined with climate adaptation techniques, can empower families, strengthen livelihoods, and create lasting change in rural Timor-Leste.

Thanks to you, women like Kornelia can look forward to a future where clean water and opportunity are within reach.