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What is stewarding

As one of our stewards, you represent Oxfam.

Each summer Oxfam provides a professional stewarding service to some of the UK's biggest music festivals. In return, we receive a donation from the festival organisers. In 2013, Oxfam will provide more than 4,000 stewards to 15 major festivals. We aim to raise close to £1m.



The money we generate from your time goes towards our life-changing work around the world.

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What is involved?

The primary purpose of stewarding is to keep people safe and provide information and advice to festival-goers.

99% of stewarding is answering questions, giving advice and keeping an eye on your area.  But 1% may involve helping to save lives in an emergency. As a steward you need to plan for every eventuality and be prepared to respond as and when required.

Being a steward means you could be asked to take on a variety of roles. Above all, it means being the eyes and ears of the festival - being alert, friendly and attentive, and able to report any safety issues that occur.

Oxfam festival stewards always work alongside dedicated security firms at all of our festivals and do not get involved in any security duties.

Find out more about  stewarding roles

Who is it for?

A good steward should be: 

  • friendly and approachable,  
  • able to maintain good humour when tired 
  • comfortable speaking with the public  
  • willing to be vocal, flexible, honest and reliable


All stewards will need to:

  • attend training (if they haven't in the last four years)
  •  provide a reference
  •  apply online and pay a deposit
  •  attend the festival(s) for the full onsite dates
  •  be eligible to volunteer in the UK
  •  be 18 or over on the arrival day of the festival 
  •  have an excellent level of spoken English
  •  adhere to our standards of behaviour

We welcome applicants from all age ranges and backgrounds. No prior experience is needed and training will be provided .

Talk to the team

Telephone: 0300 200 1266 | Email: stewards@oxfam.org.uk
View our: FAQs