Wednesday, June 25, 2025
It's been a busy month!
We started off the summer heading to Forbidden Forest for the first time, and what a good time it was! The weather was perfect for festival season and we were lucky to have one of the most beautiful campsite views - right under the stunning Belvoir Castle! Our arena and campsite teams absolutely smashed it and the event organisers have been singing the praises of the first ever Forbidden Forest Hotbox team, so a big pat on the back if you joined us there!
From Forbidden Forest, we had just 4 days back at Hotbox HQ before we were off to Download Festival, the biggest festival in the Hotbox calendar! Our team of almost 1000 people covering everything from the ticket scanning and wristbanding, campsites, towers, arena, viewing platforms, info hubs and our fabulous fleet of accessibility buggy drivers! At midday on Friday we had 300 people all on shift across the festival at the same time, which is a pretty big feat! So big kudos to our zone supervisors for keeping everything organised and our teams so well looked after!
The feedback about our Download team has been flooding in over the past week, so well done to everyone who joined us there. Keeping going in the heat and dust was tough at times, although you all powered through and made a huge difference to the experiences of so many Download Festival customers, and through doing so had a real impact on the smooth running of the festival. A big round of applause to you all!
A huge thank you to everyone who popped into our office at the end of the festival or has sent us a message since you got home about your festival experiences. It means the world to us that we can help so many people see incredible bands, make life-long friends and see the festival from a different side so we love hearing when you've had a good time!
We always do everything in our power to improve the festival experience for you, so if you particularly loved an element of 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 a amazing supervisor and want to give them a shout out, please let us know!
We're working as fast as we can to get your deposits returned to you ASAP!
Deposits are posted out as a cheque 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 ensure your address in PAAM is up to date!
The deposit return process is very lengthy as we're required to individually check every volunteer has completed their shifts at the festival, so please bear with us if responses to emails and messages are slightly delayed in this period!
We have a very limited quantity of Download Festival X Hotbox Events Merch left! If you missed out on grabbing yours we’re offering free UK and Ireland delivery with the discount code DOW25MERCH until midnight Sunday 29th June!
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? We get charged for any radio equipment losses and the Hotbox tabards are super expensive. If you forgot to hand something in before the end of the festival, please could you post it back to us ASAP 🙏
If we're not seeing you at another festival this summer, 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, 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
