Who can steward?

You must be at least 18 when you arrive onsite for your first festival but you can apply and attend training aged 17. There is no upper age limit!

If you are a more mature steward who is still young at heart and would like to be involved, then we would love to have you on the team. We are happy to discuss adapted shift arrangements with any stewards who feel that they may find the three 8 and 1/4 hour shifts, or an overnight shift difficult.

We value your experience and support, so please call us on 0300 200 1266 if you have any concerns or questions

Certain visa restrictions apply. If you are from the European Union, you are free to volunteer in the UK. For those from outside the EU, you will need to check that your visa allows you to volunteer. We advise that you contact the UK Borders and Immigration Agency to find out.

Oxfam is not able to support individuals who need visas to come to the UK to volunteer. Oxfam cannot support volunteer visas, as we do not have the correct licence to do so.

Please note, you will not be able to volunteer as a steward if you are not eligible to volunteer in the UK.

English does not need to be your first language in order to steward. However, you will need to have an excellent level of spoken and written English in order to fulfil the role. Stewarding involves speaking to members of the public, answering questions and relaying information, and you may be asked to speak over a radio to convey important messages.

Yes, you can apply online. Please see question 'What information do I need to fill in my application?' in section one. You will still need to pay the online deposit by card. If you have problems doing that from abroad, you will need to phone us on +44117 916 6483 during office hours to make your payment over the phone.

You are required to have up to date training so if you are a new steward, or have not attended training in the last four years, you should book onto a training session.

Oxfam festival volunteer stewarding opportunities are open to everyone. We aim to create an environment that realises, challenges and utilises everyone’s skills.

For details of the demands of individual roles, please click here.

As part of the application process we would like to know if there are any reasonable adjustments we can make to ensure you are able to volunteer with us.

Adjustments we can and have made in the past include but are not limited to:

• Providing a seat for people that cannot stand up for long periods of time.

• Organising a buggy to get you to the start and pick you up at the end of shifts (where possible).

• Having a Personal Assistant place (please be aware Oxfam are unable to find or provide Personal Assistants).

• Ensuring that you have adequate light to work if you are visually impaired.

• Ensuring you are not working in a loud location.

• Providing assistance in finding a secure location for medication (where possible).

• Providing charging points for power chairs in the Oxfam campsite.

• Making adjustments to the lengths of shifts where a specific access requirement for a shortened working period has been identified.

• Making adjustments to the lengths of break during your shift where a specific access requirement has been identified.

At Leeds and Reading festivals we also work in liaison with an organisation called “ Attitude is Everything” who “improve deaf and disabled people's access to live music” and recruit stewards to volunteer alongside us.

For further information about or to discuss your requirements please contact stewards@oxfam.org.uk or call us on 0300 200 1266

No. We need to know if you're colour-blind because we've had problems in the past asking people who are colour blind to check tickets. If you do have colour blindness please let us know and we will allocate you a role that doesn't require you to differentiate between colours or spot forgeries. There is a place to state this on the application form.

You can steward, although we would request that you consult with your midwife closer to the time of the festival, and get them to sign to say they support your decision to attend the festival. There are considerably more health & safety issues related to pregnant volunteers, and the facilities we need to provide to fulfil our duty of care.

If you are going to be more than four months pregnant at the festival, please call the stewards office on 0117 9166483 so that we can discuss any reasonable adjustments that we may need to make to your role onsite.

For more information about this, please select the specific festival in the Festivals area here, as each festivals policy on bringing children is different, however Oxfam's general policy on bringing children to festivals is:

• You must check the individual festival website to see if your child needs a ticket and obtain this yourself if necessary (ages of adult and child tickets vary from festival to festival).
• Each adult steward can bring two children under the age of 13, as long as you can arrange for childcare whilst you are on shift. We will require you to complete a children’s form, which you will find a link to on the application. Simply fill this in and scan it in and email it back to us, with a photo of your child/children, or post it back to the Oxfam Festivals Office.
• In addition, each adult steward may bring up to two children between the ages of 13-18 to camp in the stewards area if they have purchased a festival ticket. You will also need to indicate this on the children's form.

NB. Any children that are brought to site must have a legal guardian onsite.

If you wish to bring your child(ren), but need to be allocated on opposite shifts to your partner we can arrange this, so please contact us at the stewarding office stewards@oxfam.org.uk Please note that it is not possible for two people to share one set of shifts. If two stewards bring a child, you must both be prepared to complete all of your shifts.