Wednesday, January 29, 2025
We've been receiving lots of questions about paid steward applications for our 2025 festivals so we wanted to let you know what our plans are before applications open at midday this Friday!
The only festival we're currently planning to open paid steward applications for on Friday is Camp Bestival Dorset.
Paid steward applications at Camp Bestival Dorset will open at the same time as all of our other festival applications and you can apply as usual via your PAAM account. We're expecting paid steward positions at Camp Bestival Dorset to fill exceptionally quickly this year, possibly within the first 1-2 hours of applications opening! So if you'd like to join us as a paid steward at Camp Bestival Dorset we strongly recommend being ready to apply and pay your refundable deposit to confirm your place at midday on Friday.
Camp Bestival paid stewards work 3-4x 8-hour shifts and are mostly based at the festival gates, crossings, and accessible areas (in the campsites and on the viewing platforms). Although due to the dynamic nature of all events, there may be other tasks that pop up from time to time too!
If you miss out on a paid steward place, don't worry - we'll still have volunteer places you can apply for at Camp Bestival Dorset! Volunteers at Camp Bestival Dorset only work 2x 8-hour shifts spread from Thu-Mon and are mostly found working in the arena in the heart of the action. As volunteers work fewer shifts than paid stewards, this is a perfect option for those looking to have more time off to watch the bands and enjoy the festival!
2025 paid stewards are paid £13.73 per hour including holiday pay (for those on PAYE). Paid stewards also receive one meal voucher per shift!
We're hoping to open paid tower steward applications for Latitude Festival later in the year once we have received confirmation of a few bits from the festival organisers. We'll keep you updated with this so stay tuned to our newsletters and socials for updates!
If you're super keen to join us at Latitude, we recommend applying to volunteer this coming Friday so you know you have a confirmed place at Latitude. You can then you can swap over to a paid tower steward role later in the year when applications open.
Although paid stewards at Camp Bestival and tower stewards at Latitude are our main paid steward roles, every so often the festival organisers will ask us to take on additional paid steward roles at the events.
If any of the festival organisers would like us to take on additional paid steward roles this summer, we'll pop you an email later in the year to let you know so please ensure info@hotboxevents.com is saved in your mailbox's safe senders list so you don't miss any invitations to join us as a paid festival steward at other events!
We couldn't do what we do at the events without our awesome team of zone supervisors, office managers and control room staff! Almost all of our onsite staff team started off as volunteers or paid stewards and now help us to run Hotbox Events at festivals each summer. The door is always open for new staff to join the team, so if you're interested in taking on a more senior role at any of the events this year please pop an email to info@hotboxevents.com later in February and we'll send you a staff application form.
Please note, staff roles at some events can often be oversubscribed so we always recommend applying to join us as a volunteer/paid steward as a back-up in case we're not able to offer you a different role.
We hope to see you again this summer! ☀️
If there is anything you would like to ask or you would just like to chat with us about, the easiest way is to...
You can connect with us @hotboxevents on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn
If you would like to chat with others who have joined us before head to our Facebook Group
On Facebook you will find new and returning staff and volunteers chatting about what it is like to join us at festivals, arranging to share lifts, asking and answering questions about working at festivals and making new friends!
If you have not joined us at a festival before and are wondering what it is like, check out some of our staff and volunteer interviews!
In the interviews you will get to hear from those who have joined us talking about how they found their shifts, how they felt they were looked after by the Hotbox team, what it was like working solo for the first time, taking on more responsibility year on year, and even how the experience and confidence gained has helped with career progression away from festivals!
Another way to see what joining us is like is to check out some of our festival photos!
In our festival photo galleries, you will find thousands of photos covering our festival history over the past twenty years!
It's totally normal to be anxious before coming to a festival, particularly if you're coming solo! We get hundreds of messages every year from people wanting to join us but nervous about doing it, so we promise you're not alone! We're a very friendly bunch so if there's anything we can do to reduce your anxiety please get in touch! Try joining our Facebook Group to make friends with others before the festival - there are even a few WhatsApp groups that have been set up too!
If you have specific questions about joining us at festivals try our festival FAQs!
Our festival FAQs are regularly updated and packed full of answers to the questions we are usually asked, plus lots of handy hints and tips about working at festivals.
We usually send an email newsletter about once a month, if you would like to keep up to date you can subscribe!
If you would like to drop us an email it's info@hotboxevents.com
You can reach our office by phone on the numbers below...
Tel: 01252849600 (UK) select option 2 for Hotbox Events
Tel: +441252849600 (International) select option 2 for Hotbox Events
