Friday, March 28, 2025
This sunny weather has got us looking forward to festival season, so we thought we'd pop a post together to let you know what to expect from us over the coming months in the lead up to the festivals!
It's what you all want to know - when can you select your shift preferences?
Shift preference selection will open a few weeks before the festival. We'll send you an email and post on our socials when we're ready for you to select your shifts!
We usually have around 20-30 different shift patterns for you to rank in order of preference.
Shift preference selection is usually open for around a week, and then it can take up to a week for us to go through everyone's preferences, match up friend groups and allocate your shift patterns!
Once shift patterns have been allocated, we open meal voucher ordering for you to pre-order meal vouchers to use at the festival's staff catering!
Staff catering usually have the cheapest meals you'll find onsite and are available at a special discounted price for volunteers to pre-order.
We'll have further information about the staff catering provision at each festival and a sample menu closer to the festivals.
As we get closer to each festival, we'll update the Portal section in your Hotbox Events PAAM account will lots of useful information and training materials to familiarise yourself with prior to the festival, everything from arrival instructions to radio code words!
Don't worry about memorising all the information though. We know there's a lot to get through, and we'll run through everything at the in-person briefing when you arrive at the festival.
If you'd like to bring your campervan, caravan or motorhome to the festival, please let us know via our live-in vehicle registration form here!
Please note, we cannot allow cars or standard vans to be used as live-in vehicles for safety reasons, and the festivals require all campervans to be properly converted and recognised as a campervan by insurance – it can't just be a van with a mattress inside!
Some of the festivals are more restrictive on compound size than others, so if we have lots of people bringing a large tent or campervan to stay in, it may mean there's less space to chill outside in the compound! Please be considerate with tent sizes and don't bring something larger than you need. Better still, buddy up with friends and share a tent!
If you're in the market for a new tent, we've listed some options we'd recommend below:
You can update your PAAM Profile at any time up until the festival by logging in and heading to the Profile section. Here you can make sure your Friends list is up to date with people you'd like to be on shift with, as well as updating your address for your deposit cheque to be posted to after the festival - this is a big one for students who may be moving into different accommodation over the summer!
Top tip: please make sure anyone you add to your friends list knows you've listed them as it can affect both of your allocated shifts if you each put different shift preferences!
If you haven't already, we recommend joining our Facebook Group to chat with others before the festival! You'll also find plenty of previous Hotbox staff and volunteers who can help answer any questions about what to expect at the festival, as well as sharing recommendations for what tents and kit to bring!
It's totally normal to be anxious if you're heading to a festival solo. However with over 50% of our volunteers coming alone, we promise you'll make friends very quickly!
From Limp Bizkit to Tom Jones, and MIKA to the Vengaboys, there have been some mega additions to the festival line ups in the past few weeks! As one deposit covers you for a whole season of festivals it's quick and easy to apply to join us at more festivals this year!
Volunteering places are very nearly full for Forbidden Forest, Latitude and Camp Bestival, with Download not far behind! If you've got friends who are also wanting to come along this summer, this is their warning to apply now to not miss out on joining you there!
We can't wait to welcome you to a festival field 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
