Friday, July 4, 2025
It's what you've all been waiting for - it's time to select your Camp Bestival 2025 shift preferences!
There are 13 different shift patterns to choose from at Camp Bestival this year. Please make sure you indicate a preference for each shift as PAAM won't let you save your preferences until you have!
You have until midday on Thursday 10th July to select your shift preferences. Please make sure you have submitted your preferences before this date as after this, shifts will be allocated based on availability.
Following 10th July, it will take us several days to process shift preferences and allocate shift patterns for everyone joining us at Camp Bestival.
Once we have allocated your Camp Bestival shifts, we'll send another email letting you know it's time to login and find out your shift pattern, order your meal vouchers and start planning your festival schedule!
If you're joining us at Camp Bestival with friends and would like to have the same shift pattern, please ensure their name and email address are listed in the Friends section of your PAAM profile so we can ensure you have the same shift pattern.
Don't forget to check that your friends have listed your name and email address in their Friends section too!
Please also make sure that you don't have any friends' names from previous years still in your friends list, as it slows down the shift allocation process if we're searching to match you with volunteers who haven't signed up this year!
You'll then need to make sure you and your friends input the same shift preferences in the same order.
This is your last chance to update the Friends section of your profile before Camp Bestival shifts are allocated!
Shift allocation is a manual process, and the part which takes the longest is matching all of the friend groups.
Every year, we waste hours searching for volunteers who have been listed in a friend's list but are not signed up to the event.
Therefore, PLEASE ensure you only have volunteers who have applied to Camp Bestival 2025 (plus Latitude if you’re also joining us there as the shift selection periods cross over) listed in your friends list.
If you have other friends volunteering at other festivals later in the year, please remove them from your friends list before Camp Bestival and then add them again to your friends list before the event they’ll be joining you at.
Please also double check that you don’t have any friends from previous years still listed in your friends list!
If everyone only lists friends who are joining us at Camp Bestival this year in their friends list, everyone’s shifts will be confirmed hours, if not days, earlier!
To choose your Camp Bestival shift preferences you need to:
Once we've allocated shift patterns, your group name will show at the top of your Camp Bestival Info page.
We are a very small team at Hotbox HQ, so there may be some delay in our response to emails and messages while we're working hard to allocate shifts as quickly as possible. If you need urgent advice during this time, we suggest dropping into our Facebook group, where you can chat with veteran staff and volunteers!
Shift preference selection can be a little overwhelming if it's your first time joining as there are so many different shift options to choose from! We've listed our top tips for working out your order of shift preferences below:
For further information about how shifts are allocated, please read the information within the shift planner PDF.
A few more paid steward positions have become available. If you're currently joining us as a volunteer but would like to swap to a paid steward position, please email us and we'll swap you over.
Paid stewards work 3x or 4x 8-hour shifts and are mostly based at the gates, accessible areas and crossings around the festival site. Paid stewards are paid £13.73 per hour including holiday pay (for those on PAYE) and also receive one meal voucher per shift.
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
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
