Thursday, April 16, 2026
This sunny weather has got us looking forward to festival season, so we thought we'd drop you a little message to let you know what to expect from us over the coming months!
Before we get into the fun stuff, a super important reminder about the ID documents you need to bring to the festivals.
Everyone who joins us (even volunteers), must have documents that prove they have the right to work in the UK (this is a legal requirement).
For UK citizens, this means bringing to the festival site either option 1 OR option 2 below:
Option 1. A UK/ROI passport. If using an expired passport, the corners must not have been cut as this invalidates the document.
Option 2. Your ORIGINAL birth certificate AND an official document from a government agency or current or previous employer showing your name and NI number, such as a payslip or P45.
We must see the original documents and cannot accept photocopies, but we can store them for you in our onsite safe if you don't want to keep them in your tent.
If you're not a UK citizen, the easiest way to prove your right to work in the UK is to generate a Right to Work share code online and email it to us before the festival. Please do this at least two weeks in advance of your first festival.
Read more about: Proving your right to work in the UK
Anyone who arrives at a festival without the correct documents will unfortunately not be able to join us.
A Driving License is NOT proof of your right to work in the UK!
It's what you all want to know - when can you select your shift preferences?
Shift preference selection will open a few weeks before each festival. We'll send you an email and post on our socials when we're ready for you to select your preferences. Don't worry, full instructions will be included!
We usually have around 20-30 different shift patterns for you to rank in order of preference.
Shift preference selection is usually open for around a week, and then it can take up to a week for us to go through everyone's preferences, match up friend groups and allocate your shift patterns!
We know it's hard to wait that long and we would let you know sooner if we could, but changes often happen with event schedules until quite close to the events!
Once shift patterns have been allocated, we will open meal voucher ordering. This will allow you to pre-order meal vouchers to use at the festival's staff and volunteer catering facility!
Staff and volunteer catering usually has the cheapest, biggest (and tastiest!) meals onsite, and those who pre-order meal vouchers with us will get them even cheaper! We'll send you further information about the catering provision and a sample menu closer to each festival
Closer to each festival, we will update the Training Portal in Hotbox Events PAAM with lots of useful information - everything from arrival instructions to radio code words.
Don't worry about memorising all the information though. We know there's a lot to get through. We'll also run through everything at the in-person briefing when you arrive at the festival!
If you'd like to bring your campervan, caravan or motorhome to the festival, please let us know via our live-in vehicle registration form here!
Campervan, caravan and motorhome spaces at Download Festival and Latitude Festival are now full, so if you were planning to bring one to either of these festivals, hopefully you've already registered it!
Please note, we cannot allow cars or standard vans to be used as live-in vehicles for safety reasons, and the festivals require all campervans to be properly converted and recognised as a campervan by insurance - it can't just be a van with a mattress inside sorry!
Some of the festivals are more restrictive on compound size than others, so if we have lots of people bringing a large tent or campervan to stay in, it means there will be less space for us all in the compound. Please be considerate with tent sizes and don't bring something larger than you need. Better still, buddy up with friends and share a tent!
If you're in the market for a new tent, we've listed some options we'd recommend below:
You can update your PAAM Profile at any time by logging in and heading to the Profile section.
Please make sure:
If you haven't already, we recommend joining our Facebook Group to chat with others before the festival! You'll also find plenty of previous Hotbox staff and volunteers who can help answer any questions and share recommendations. It's totally normal to be anxious if you're heading to a festival solo, however, with over 50% of our volunteers coming alone each year, we promise you'll make friends very quickly!
From Florence and the Machine to Fatboy Slim, and Linkin Park to Lewis Capaldi, there's some incredible artists to see this year! As one deposit covers you for a whole festival season, it's quick and easy to apply to join us at more!
Volunteering places are already full for Forbidden Forest, Download and Latitude Festival, but we still have spaces at Camp Bestival, Reading and Leeds Festival! And if you've got friends who are still on the fence, this is their warning to apply now or risk missing out!
We can't wait to welcome you to a festival field this summer! ☀️
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
