Signing up to volunteer as a Steward

How does the sign up process work?

Festival stewarding is open to everyone, so sign-ups work on a first-come first served basis. It's also very popular, and when we open, some festivals will fill in hours, minutes, or even seconds.

To sign up you'll need to create an account. If there are particular festivals you're keen to get a place at, we recommend creating your account in advance (if you haven't already got one), or checking that you know your password (if you have).

When sign-ups open, you'll be able to select the festival you want to volunteer at on this page, and you'll then be forwarded to stripe to pay your refundable deposit. When you reach the Stripe page, you can relax: a place at the festival will be held for you for 10 minutes, to give you time to complete the payment.

You can use apple pay, google pay, or a card to pay your deposit. To make sure you successfully pay your deposit in time, we recommend that you:

  • Check you have enough money in your account beforehand.
  • Have all the details you need to make a payment, including the postcode for your card.
  • Keep more than one payment method to hand, just in case.

At the very busiest times, you may find Stripe asks you to 'Try again later' when you click the 'Pay' button. If this occurs, don't worry, just give it a minute then try again. Do not leave the payment page.

Once your deposit has been paid, you'll see a confirmation screen, and you'll get an email from us confirming your place and outlining the next steps, including how to complete your profile.

Can I sign up for multiple festivals

Yes, once your deposit has been paid and you see the confirmation screen, you can sign up for another festival.

You only need to lodge one deposit with us when volunteering at multiple festivals, but please be aware that it can take us a few moments to register your deposit payment on our system, so if you try to sign up for a second festival before your first deposit is registered, you may be asked to pay a second one.

If this happens, we recommend waiting a few more seconds before signing up, to give your existing deposit time to register. If you do choose to go ahead and pay a second deposit, we'll automatically refund it back to you within a few days. There's no need to contact us about it!

When you sign up, you'll pay a refundable deposit.

The amount of the deposit depends on what you are signing up to:

  • Glastonbury: £380
  • Other weekend festivals: £250
  • Day festivals and events: £50

You only need to pay one deposit to sign up to multiple festivals, however if the deposit you have paid is not big enough for the festival you're signing up to, you'll be asked to top it up.

Your deposit will be returned to you 4 weeks after your last festival of the year, or 6 weeks for Glastonbury festival.

It’s difficult to predict exactly how many places will fill on application day, but in recent years many of our festivals filled completely in the first few days or hours.

Places at Glastonbury, our largest festival in terms of volunteer numbers, were all filled within seconds of opening.

If a festival reaches full capacity, it will show as "SOLD OUT" on the sign-up screen.

We recommend checking regularly throughout launch day, as spots may become available if someone else's application isn't completed. Cancellations also occur throughout the year so it's worth keeping an eye out.

If you’ve got your heart set on Glastonbury, please be aware that our volunteer places here fill in just seconds every year! If you do miss out, it’s worth checking back later in the day and throughout the year, as places do occasionally become available.

The best way of getting to Glastonbury is to get Priority. We also have lots of other great festivals to volunteer at, and doing so will help you get Priority for the next year.

At the busiest times, we close the profile pages to help reduce the load on our servers. You should try again in a day or two.

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