Friday, June 5, 2026
We're so excited to see you next week at Download Festival!
If you've not already spotted it, your shift pattern has now been confirmed!
You can view your shift pattern on the Overview page of your PAAM account.
If you didn't select shift preferences before the deadline your shift pattern won't have been allocated yet. Please log in to your PAAM account to select your shift preferences and check back in a few days to see your shift pattern.
Meal voucher ordering for Download Festival is now open!
Crew catering at Download Festival will be located just outside our compound entrance and not too far from the arena!
The crew caterers at Download Festival this year are the same caterers as at Download, Latitude and Reading 2025, so if you joined us last year you may remember them!
Crew catering will be open from breakfast on Wednesday 10th to breakfast on Monday 15th June. There will be no onsite catering open on Tuesday 9th June so if you're arriving on Tuesday please plan for this. We will have kettles in the marquee in the Hotbox compound which you can use for hot water for pot noodles, porridge pots etc. and you can leave site once you've been accredited to do a supermarket run or pick up a takeaway if you wish. Crew catering will serve breakfast, lunch, packed lunch, dinner and packed dinner at a greatly reduced price compared to the public food stands at the festival site. Meal vouchers can be pre-ordered at a discounted price of £6.50 per voucher before the festival.
To order your Download Festival meal vouchers:
The deadline for pre-ordering meal vouchers is midday Sunday 7th June.
A sample menu can be found in the Download Festival training portal area of your PAAM account.
Please note that meal vouchers are non-refundable as we are required to pay for them in advance of the festival.
Please take some time to check out the Training Portal in your PAAM account as there's lots of useful documents to familiarise yourself with before the festival. This includes a compulsory accessibility briefing document and new buggy driver information briefing so please take a read before the festival. We are likely to be sent more briefing documents by the festival organisers in the days leading up to the festival so please keep an eye on the Portal area for more documents popping up!
We're understandably receiving lots of questions from volunteers regarding arrival information including which gate to enter at the festival!
Various bits are changing at the festival this year which will impact the arrival onsite. We are currently waiting for confirmation of a few of these elements from the festival organisers, as soon as we have confirmation of which gate you need to enter through, where accreditation is, where the crew car park is and how best to arrive via public transport we will update this in the Info Pack and upload it to the PAAM Portal ASAP.
As we have so many volunteers onsite our arrival information is slightly more complicated and we want to make sure we give you the correct information to avoid any confusion if this changes before the festival.
We know lots of our crew at the festival have accessibility requirements which may mean they're not able to carry their camping kit too far so we're working with the festival organisers on a solution for this. Due to the quantity of volunteers we have onsite (900!) it's not possible to drive to the compound to drop off bags (unless you can befriend a friendly volunteer with a campervan who will be driving to the compound 😉) so please do plan for this and pack light if required. We will update you on the arrival process as soon as we can.
Accreditation will be open from 08:00 - 19:00 on Tuesday and 10:00 - 18:00 on Wednesday. Please plan to arrive at least 3 hours before your onsite briefing at 7pm on either the Tuesday or Wednesday. If your first shift is on Wednesday you will need to attend the Tuesday briefing. If your first shift is later in the week you can attend either the Tuesday or Wednesday briefing. We ask you to arrive earlier in the day to allow for queues going through security checks and at accreditation and to give you enough time to make your way to the compound, set up your tent and get your bearings before the briefing. The earlier you can arrive the less time you're likely to be spending in queues!
The ground in our new compound can be quite hard so you may wish to bring heavy duty tent pegs. Live in vehicles will mostly be parked on hardstanding ground (good news if it's a wet one! 🌧️) however compound space is restricted so it's unfortunately unlikely we'll have space for awnings or gazebos for live in vehicles.
Please don't forget to bring documents to prove your right to work in the UK to the festival.
The options for this are:
We cannot accept photocopies or photographs! We are legally required to see the original documents in person at the festival. We have a safe in the Hotbox office where we can keep documents during the festival if you would prefer to not store them in your tent.
A driving license is not proof of your right to work in the UK.
Every year volunteers arrive with their driving license as proof of right to work in the UK and unfortunately need to be asked to head back home to collect other documents to prove their right to work in the UK. Please don't let this be you!
If you have any queries over right to work documents please contact us before the festival. If you do not have the correct documents for us to check at the festival site you will not be able to volunteer.
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
