Festival volunteering
Festival volunteering with WaterAid
Applications to join us in 2024 will open early next year.
Register your interest in volunteering, and join our Festival Volunteering Facebook group, and you'll be the first to hear when applications open!
What our volunteers do
We deliver a range of essential services, including keeping festivalgoers hydrated, providing our very own compost toilets, and helping to keep the festival clean for everyone – all whilst spreading the word about the life-changing power of clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene.
Water crews
Our water crews play a vital role in keeping festivalgoers happy, healthy and hydrated! Roles can include handing out water, selling water bottles, maintaining and cleaning water refill points, and talking to the public about our work.
Sanitation crews
Our sanitation crews include our Good Loos team, Loo Crew, and female urinal team. You could be keeping toilets clean and tidy, taking donations, and talking to festivalgoers about the importance of decent toilets for everyone.
Hygiene crews
The past few years have shown us all how important good hygiene is – so we'll be helping events stay clean and safe. Volunteers will help keep showers, sinks, and other key touch points around site sparkling clean!
We don’t ask you to choose which crew you'd like to join, but as part of the application process you’ll be able to highlight any skills and experience that will help us allocate the most suitable role to you. Please bear in mind that most of our roles – especially at Glastonbury – do involve cleaning of some kind!
What it's like to volunteer with WaterAid
Festival volunteering can involve rolling up your sleeves and getting stuck in – there's no denying it!
But it's also a wonderful opportunity to come together with a welcoming group of friendly, like-minded people, all passionate about WaterAid’s mission of reaching everyone, everywhere with clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene.
And of course, when you’re not on shift, you’ll be able to enjoy the rest of the festival!
Find out more about:
Every multi-day festival has a crew-only campsite with a dedicated WaterAid area. The facilities on offer in the crew campsite will vary depending on the event; we'll let you know more information about specifics nearer the festival. If you have friends or family camping elsewhere at a festival, they won't be able to join you in the crew area, and you'll still need to camp with WaterAid.
You'll need to bring your own camping equipment, and unfortunately we don't have space to accommodate campervans.
We're not usually able to provide accommodation at single-day events.
We provide one full meal per shift worked, either in the form of vouchers to use at the dedicated crew cafe, or an expense allowance to buy food from on-site traders. Each festival has slightly different arrangements, which we confirm with you beforehand.
Priority status
We want to honour the commitment of our longstanding volunteers who join us at multiple festivals over the summer.
If you volunteered at two or more this year, or if you've volunteered at five or more over the past five years, you'll benefit from priority status for our 2024 volunteer team – including Glastonbury! This won’t guarantee you a place on our team, but it does mean that we’ll process your application first. Check the priority status policy (PDF) for full details.
Accessibility
As we want to do everything we can to make festival volunteering with us accessible for everyone, we can help by:
- setting up a payment plan for deposits,
- lending camping equipment,
- providing additional help with expenses,
- supporting volunteers during the application process (e.g. with training) and/or whilst at the festival.
Contact us
If you have any questions, check out our FAQs page, or email us at [email protected] – we’d be happy to help!
You can also join the WaterAid Festival Volunteering Facebook group to connect with fellow volunteers, and keep up to date with the latest volunteering opportunities.