Wednesday, July 1, 2026
Now that the dust has (quite literally!) settled, and you've hopefully caught up on some sleep, we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who joined us at Forbidden Forest and Download Festival!
Festival season 2026 is off to a brilliant start after a fast paced and super fun couple of weeks at Forbidden Forest and Download Festival! A particular shout out to all of our returning volunteers - we're so appreciative of you coming back to share your incredible knowledge and experience of all things festival with the wider team!
We know for some it was your first ever festival, so we hope we set you off on the right foot for a lifetime of live music events! We spoke to lots of volunteers at the beginning of the week who were feeling quite daunted by the size and scale of each festival, so you should be super proud of yourselves for sticking with it, getting stuck in, and hopefully making some incredible memories!
A special mention to all of those who switched to volunteering after years of attending as a ticket holder. We hope you enjoyed getting to see behind the scenes and playing your part in making the festival happen!
So much amazing feedback about your work has been coming to us, so a big round of applause to you all for your hard work helping to make the festivals safe and enjoyable for everyone!
Deposits are posted out as cheques to the address in your PAAM Profile within 30 days of the last day of the last festival you're joining us at each year, so please login to PAAM now to check your address is up to date! This is particularly important for students who have changed accommodation over the summer!
There are currently a number of volunteers due deposit returns next week who do not have a postcode listed as part of their address on their PAAM accounts. Without a postcode your deposit cheque is probably not going to make its way to you as it will get lost in the post. Please take a moment to log into your PAAM account and double check your address now - this only takes 2 minutes. The deposit return process is lengthy as we're required to individually check every volunteer completed their shifts at each festival, so please bear with us if responses to emails and messages are slightly delayed in this period. We're working as fast as we can to get deposits returned to your ASAP.
A huge thank you to everyone who popped into the office at the end of each festival with words of thanks and appreciation, and to everyone who has sent us messages since getting home excited about your festival experiences and missing your time with us. It means the world to all of us at Hotbox that we can help so many people to have such fantastic experiences, be it the reward that comes from helping those attending the festivals, making life-long friends, seeing a bit of how the events run behind the scenes, or of course seeing the incredible bands 😉 We love hearing when you've had a good time!
We always do everything in our power to make the festival experience as good for you as we can, and improve it whenever and wherever possible. So if you particularly loved something about joining us, or if you've got some ideas about how we can make things better, we'd love to hear from you!
We also love hearing about all of the fun things you got up to on shift with your zone supervisors, so if you had an amazing supervisor and want to give them a shout out, please let us know!
At the end of the year, we collect up all of the awesome feedback you've given us about each member of the staff team and send it out to them in personalised Christmas cards. We know it makes their Christmas a little more...Christmassy, to receive them, and it's nice to be nice, so if you have any praise for any of our staff members, we would love to hear it so we can pass it on!
Fancy another festival before the end of the summer? We've just reopened positions to volunteer at Latitude Festival, plus we have a handful of volunteer places remaining at Reading and Leeds! Don't miss your chance to see Lewis Capaldi, Charli XCX, Florence and the Machine, Kasabian and loads more amazing artists, plus catch up with all your festival friends! One deposit covers you for the whole festival season so you could have a place confirmed to join us again this summer in a few quick clicks!
We're always on the lookout for zone supervisors, office managers, control room staff, and minibus drivers to join our paid staff team at the events. As you've now worked with us at least once - so know how we and the festivals work - you have the perfect foundation to take on a staff role next time if you would like to. If you're interested in joining our festival staff team for Reading and Leeds this summer you can fill out our staff application form
As some events and roles can be oversubscribed, we always recommend also applying to volunteer, so you have a backup and can still join us if you don't get a paid staff role.
If you enjoyed driving buggies around the Download site (or you weren't in the buggy team but you thought it looked like a fun thing to do), we have paid minibus driver positions at Leeds Festival this year! Our fleet of minibus drivers work all over the Leeds Festival site assisting customers and crew get to the correct gates and campsites.
Minibus drivers must have a D1 entitlement on their driving license.
Please pop us an email if you'd be interested in joining our paid minibus driver team at Leeds.
If you missed out on grabbing your festival merch, we're offering free UK delivery with the discount code:
FERRISWHEEL2026
Until midnight Wednesday 15th July!
Don't miss out on Download Festival x Hotbox Events t-shirts, battle patches and thermal mugs - head to the Hotbox Festival Merch Shop to order yours now!
If you accidentally took home one of our tabards, radios, earpieces, radio clips, or any other piece of kit, please could we have it back? The events charge us for any equipment losses, and the Hotbox owned tabards are super expensive! So if you forgot to hand something in before the end of the festival, please could you post it back to our HQ ASAP🙏
You can find our address here
Keep an eye on our socials and newsletters for updates over the winter!
We hope to see you again next year 😊
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, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and YouTube
If you would like to chat with others who have joined us before, head to our Facebook Group
Here 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 these 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 who are keen to join us but nervous about coming alone, so we promise you're not...alone! We're a very friendly bunch and if there's anything we can do to reduce your anxiety, please get in touch! You can also join our Facebook Group to make friends with others before the festival. Within this group you will also find links to some volunteer-led WhatsApp groups that have been set up!
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, as well as handy festival hits and tips.
We usually send out an email newsletter every month or so. If you would like to keep up to date with our news and festival happenings, please 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
