Mud, mayhem and quality live music: volunteering at Glastonbury

By Oxfam Glastonbury volunteer and Generation Why blog-star Sarah.

Volunteering at Glastonbury was amazing. The people really were brilliant and the atmosphere was always upbeat, despite the weather.

Over 45,000 amazing folk signed our climate change petition over the festival, bringing in a total of 70,000 signatures for the I Count coalition - an astounding job.

The mud and rain lived up to expectations. I’m so glad I bought some wellies! There is an age old Glasto tradition of dressing up in bridal attire and we were only too happy to give it a go. The Oxfam stalls here have a fab selection of second hand wedding dresses and tuxedos for a tenner which sell like hot cakes.

This Oxfam tent was in a great location - right next to the awesome pyramid stage. As well as selling Fair Trade goodies there was a ‘carbon gym’ to demonstrate carbon emissions. Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis held a press conference alongside speakers from Greenpeace, Oxfam and Water Aid and pledged his support to the I Count climate change campaign.

The mud-splattered folk were eager for the bands to kick-off. Iggy Pop really rocked and had fun inviting half the crowd up on stage with him. The Fratellis got everyone jumping around to Chelsea, Chelsea, causing even more mud splattering. By the Arctic Monkeys’ set there were many mud caked revellers with full body coverage and the odd cheeky mud handprint.

On our way back to our campsite we stopped in at backstage where I managed to slip over in the mud. Luckily a very helpful band helped me up and said that Luke from The Kooks had just done exactly the same thing! Now I am going to have a well deserved warm bath…

Thanks to the frankly fabulous Oxfam's Generation Whyfor this article. Check them out for loads of ways to do what you love doing and change the world why you're doing it.