Festival volunteering
Get involved
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'll be keeping toilets clean and tidy, taking donations, and talking to festivalgoers about the importance of decent toilets for everyone.
Hygiene crews
The past two years have shown us all how important good hygiene is – so we'll be helping events stay clean and safe, cleaning showers and touch points around the site, as well as collecting litter and making sure as much as possible is recycled.
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 – 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 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 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 for 2023
We want to honour the commitment of our volunteers who join us at multiple festivals.
So, if you volunteered with us at two or more festivals this year, or if you’ve volunteered at five or more in the past five years, you’ll benefit from priority status for our 2023 volunteer team – including Glastonbury! This won’t guarantee you a place on our team next year, but it will mean that we’ll process your 2023 application first.
How to apply
Applications to join us in 2023 will open early next year – register your interest now and we'll let you know as soon as they do!
Accessibility
We want to do everything we can to make festival volunteering with us accessible for everyone. Please get in touch with us by emailing [email protected], or by calling 020 7793 4594, if we can help with:
- Setting up a payment plan for your deposit
- Borrowing camping equipment
- Additional help with expenses
- Support during the application process (e.g. with training) and/or at the festival
- Anything else that we could do to support you to volunteer with us.
Contact us
If you have any questions, check out our FAQs page, or contact us by emailing [email protected] or calling 020 7793 4594 – 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.