Glade festival review

Glade festival

What to expect:
There is a laid-back vibe to Glade that makes the festival very enjoyable. However, this can be a challenge sometimes, particularly when dealing with members of the public. A lot of festivalgoers can be reluctant to follow advice straightaway, and might not be looking after themselves very well. Patience, people skills and tolerance of being hugged are quite important assets for a Glade steward. Similarly, the positions we are required to steward sometimes change mid-festival, so it’s important to be flexible about where you are working. You may be asked to move from your allocated position.

Although a lot of our positions are close to stages, we also steward fire towers and campsite positions that are further away from the main festival stages. These positions do not have a static supervisor, but a mobile supervisor will be looking after a number of stewards on each shift. Stewards on these positions will be given radios, and it’s vital that you maintain good radio communication with your supervisor or with the Oxbox during your shifts

Review:
The Glade festival is rapidly becoming the festival for fans of electronic dance music. Even after 2007’s scary weather (half the South of England flooding didn’t help the festival fields much!), this year saw a good crowd turning up to enjoy some top names and some top vibes. And the weather wasn’t too bad either!

There’s a nice group of regular stewards who do Glade every year, but this is a festival that also attracts a lot of first-timers. I’m not actually a big fan of dance music, and there’re quite a lot of other stewards who say the same thing. But this is a festival that’s about more than just music. The atmosphere is relaxed and people are there to have a good time. It’s pretty hard not to enjoy yourself, really. That said – if you are all about the music, stewards get plenty of time off so you can generally get to see a good mix of acts.

A lot of the stewarding positions are in and around the stages. There isn’t a separate arena area at Glade, so a few of the campsite position aren’t very far away from the stages. Some of the positions we work are a little out of the way – but our drivers and mobile supervisors did a great job this year of getting tea, coffee and smiles out to all the stewards.

We have our own campsite at Glade, and our own caterers. This year, we had lovely hot food from Nuts, who also provided gorgeous vegetarian soup all through the night. We also had our own marquee as well, which was a nice place for socialising. There were some pretty insane conversations in there… and an awful lot of giggling.

What else can I say? Glade is one of my favourite festivals. Even the M4 flooding wouldn’t stop me from going!

Hannah Kate