Festival volunteering
Festival volunteering with WaterAid
Applications to join us in 2025 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
From refilling water bottles to looking after the loos, our volunteers help make sure festivals stay clean, safe and enjoyable for everyone – all whilst raising awareness of the life-changing power of clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene.
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 particular skills and experiences that will help us allocate the most suitable role to you. Please bear in mind that most of our roles do involve cleaning of some kind – and at Glastonbury, over half the positions include cleaning toilets.
What it's like to volunteer with WaterAid
There's no denying it: festival volunteering can involve rolling up your sleeves and getting stuck in.
But it's also a wonderful opportunity to come together with a welcoming group of people, all passionate about WaterAid’s mission of making clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene a normal part of daily life – for everyone, everywhere.
And of course, when you’re not on shift, you’ll be able to enjoy the rest of the festival!
Find out more about:
At multi-day festivals, you'll need to camp within the dedicated WaterAid area of the crew-only campsite. Facilities include toilets, showers, and a volunteer marquee with tea, coffee, and biscuits. 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 for insurance and health and safety reasons.
You'll need to bring your own camping equipment, and unfortunately we don't usually have space to accommodate live-in vehicles.
We're not usually able to provide accommodation at single-day events.
We provide one meal per shift worked, either as vouchers to use at the event's crew catering, or as an expense allowance to buy food from on-site traders. Each festival has slightly different arrangements, which we confirm with you beforehand.
Priority status
If you volunteered with us at two or more festivals in 2024, or if you've volunteered at five or more over the past five years, you'll automatically benefit from priority status for this summer. This doesn’t guarantee you a place on our team, but it does mean that we’ll process your application first.
Accessibility
We welcome applications from disabled people and want to make volunteering with us accessible to as many people as we can.
Please get in touch with us on [email protected] or 020 7793 5050 if you'd like any further guidance, or need support to complete the application form.
There's space on the application form to state any adjustments you may require to carry out your voluntary role with us, which might include:
- having the option to camp in the accessible campsite if preferred (subject to availability),
- providing you with a chair,
- adjustments to shift and/or break times,
- providing materials in alternative formats (e.g. large text),
- lending you camping equipment,
- supporting with the transport of equipment from the car park to our campsite,
- providing financial support for expenses and deposits.
Please get in touch with us on [email protected] or 020 7793 4523 if you'd like to discuss any potential adjustments with us before applying.
Most festivals have a dedicated access team, and we can contact them to discuss any specific needs.
We're unable to arrange personal assistants but if you have a PA, most festivals provide them with free tickets, and we won't ask them to pay a deposit. PAs will need to complete our online application process, agree to all terms and conditions, and complete all training.
You can find out more information about access at each festival by checking their websites.
Contact us
If you have any questions, please first check out our festival volunteering FAQs. If you can't find the answer there, get in touch with us:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 020 7793 5050
You can also join the WaterAid Festival Volunteering Facebook group to connect with fellow volunteers, and keep up to date with all the latest volunteering opportunities.