Wednesday, December 15, 2021
As we head for the holidays, we'd like to send out our very best wishes for the season to everyone who joined the Hotbox team in 2021 😊
Before we look back at what has been an amazing year, if you've not already spotted them in November we posted hundreds of brilliant new photos from 2021's festivals to our website galleries and Facebook page! Again, a huge thank you to our amazing volunteer photographers who did a fantastic job capturing everyone! We hope you love this year's photos as much as we do and they help to remind you of some fantastic festival filled summer moments!
And what a year it's been...
Who knew at the beginning of the year what 2021 would have in store...whether, if after a year without festivals, large scale events would even be allowed to take place? Fortunately, the easing of lockdown coincided perfectly with the start of Latitude Festival! We can't describe how good it felt to be arriving at the beautiful Henham Park, surrounded by all the familiar festival sights and sounds, and we're sure you felt the same! We had so much positive praise from the public and festival organisers about your amazing work at Latitude this year and we're so grateful for you choosing to spend your first weekend out of lockdown with us! 🎉
We then headed south to Camp Bestival in Dorset where we were met with some extreme weather and an extra role to cover! Back in 2019, who would have thought that we'd have Covid Checker positions at festivals! Our teams of Covid Checkers, Wristbanders, Accessible Campsite Stewards and Arena Teams were so dedicated to making sure the festival goers had the best experience, including when our gate stewards temporarily became CATs to assist in the very windy campsites! We received so much positive feedback about your friendly and approachable nature, and how you would always go out of your way to help wherever needed, so a huge thank you from us! 😊
Then just a few weeks later we were off to the sell-out Reading and Leeds Festival! Just wow…you guys smashed it! It was a full-on week of busy shifts, watching some awesome bands, and some hard-core partying! As ever your enthusiasm and excitement for the festivals was so contagious, we were all buzzing by the end of it! The zone teams and festival organisers feedback was fantastic; letting us know how you were going above and beyond to help in the campsites, keeping everyone safe and making sure the festival-goers had the best time! We hope you too had a fantastic time along the way!
Just as we thought our 2021 season was winding down...we headed off to Wales for a brand-new event – Titan! Set in the stunning Cardiff Bay, our team worked tirelessly to Covid-check every single Titan attendee in some rare, bright Welsh sunshine! Fuelled by daily ice creams and the best Italian catering near a festival site we ever had (shout out to Francesco and his incredible panzerotti! 😍), we kept the event Covid-safe before enjoying some incredible bands after our shifts each evening!
We don't have words for how grateful we are for all you did this summer, helping the first festivals after over a year of a global pandemic to run smoothly is a huge achievement so you should all be incredibly proud of yourselves! It was so lovely to see so many regular faces joining us again this year, bringing invaluable experience and festival knowledge with them. We also had record numbers of new volunteers joining us for the first time this year – a huge welcome to the Hotbox crew to you all and we hope you'll be coming back to join us again at future festivals!
Your feedback has been amazing to receive this year and is so helpful for us in implementing changes that improve the volunteering experience. We particularly loved hearing from first time volunteers this year, how much you enjoyed being part of the team, giving back to the festival whilst having a lot of fun and forging some amazing festival friendships!
We're already receiving lots of interest about volunteering at festivals in 2022 and were excited to reveal that 2022 festival volunteering applications will open at 12pm on Friday 4th February 2022! Set your alarms and get that deposit set aside now to secure your place at some awesome events next summer!
Latitude, Camp Bestival, Reading and Leeds are all ready to go with more festival volunteering opportunities for 2022, and from what we've seen so far, some amazing festival line ups too!
Plus, a long-awaited return to Download Festival! We know how much our incredible Download Dog Squad have missed rocking out in the mud at Donnington Park! It's been a long 2 ½ years since we were last there in 2019 so we're thrilled to be heading back for 2022!
And who knows, maybe some other new exciting events will pop up too…watch this space! 👀
The continued success of Hotbox Events is due to the amazing work of our festival teams, none of what we do would be possible without your help and tireless enthusiasm, so as always, we are truly grateful to each and every one of you for joining us at Latitude, Camp Bestival, Reading, Leeds, and Titan in 2021. ❤️
To round off another awesome year, we'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We can't wait to welcome you back to the Hotbox team next summer 😊
