Festivals- Glade (part 2)

Dear followers!

here is my second post for the Glade festival- the shifts!
1st shift:
My first shift of the festival was 4pm till midnight on Friday and here's how it went.
I was working on a bar called 'The Wenches Chest' (this was also at Glastonbury). It was a huge tent/building made out of wood. The festival had already been going since Thursday evening, and most of the festival goer's were already intoxicated and looking for more alcohol. Because there was a 'no alcohol police' on site (any alcohol found when entering the site by security was taken away and confiscated, the same with drugs), all of the festival goer's were finding the bars on site to buy alcohol from there- so this bar was rather busy!
My main duties were to keep vigilant for any problems that arose within the bar (disorderly people, any violence, injuries etc.) I had another shift partner with me, so you were never on your own in case anything happened.
There was also a supervisor walking around a particular area, who you could ask if there was a problem.
There were a couple of problems I encountered on my first shift: no festival goer's were allowed up-stairs of the bar, due to health and safety reason's (the construction team didn't ensure the building was safe to go up-stairs, therefore this could cause a liability for festival goer's). So anyone I could see heading towards the stairs, and had to ask them politely to not go up-stairs, usually they were fine with this, but some people who had had quite a bit to drink did not heed my warning and at one point, I had to get the proprietor to speak to them.
I was also given a radio to contact my supervisor in an emergency, but the batteries run out after an hour, and so if anything had happened, I would have had to leave my post to find someone, leaving my other shift partner on her own.
There was also the the 'no smoking' policy enforced. Any building with more then three sides covered was a non-smoking area. Because the bar was made out of wood, this automatically became a non-smoking bar. Although when it rained later that evening, and the whole bar was drenched and sodden through, how can you tell someone to put their cigarette out in a building where water is coming thought the roof??
Also had one incident where a festival goer came to us and said her friend had been injured. Because the radio didn't work, I went to find another steward with a radio. Then my shift partner went to see about the casualty- while I got through to the medical team. Turned out, the causality had refused medical treatment earlier in the day from the medical team, and as a result they would not come and collect her. We then had to find some 'floaters', these are stewards who do not have any given site to steward and are 'floating' around the site until they are needed. These stewards then had to help the causality up to the medical tent for her to be seen to. All of this happened 10 minutes before the end of my shift!

For my first shift, I felt I delt with the problems logically and calmly. I had alot of fun and understand why people steward year after year. I had some very interesting conversations with some people, and apart from some occasions, the atmosphere was laid back and relaxed. From some of the stories I have heard from previous years- this was an easy shift!


Here is a photo of the Wenches Chest before the start of my shift. The large black cover on the top was not water-proof, so when it rained, and the water went straight through to the unsuspecting people below!


Here I am, ready for my shift. The florescent jacket comes in useful in the dark when trying to find other stewards. All other members of authority where florescent jackets as well: security, medics, police etc.



2nd shift:
For my second shift, I was posted at the same bar as the night before, although this shift was from midnight Friday till 8am Saturday morning. These shifts are known as the 'graveyard' shifts, basically meaning, you might be looking after a bar that has closed for the night, but you are there so no-one comes along and causes trouble. You are looking after a 'dead site'. I thought this might be the case with the shift I was about to do. The Wenches Chest had closed by the time I arrived on shift, so for an hour, I had to stand around looking after a closed bar. Luckily my supervisor arrived and said I was to be 'deployed' somewhere else, where they need me more. I was very happy about this, as I was getting quite boring and cold where my shift partner and I were sat. We were then told to go and stand-in on the 'Overkill' stage, as there was a five hour rave in the tent, and the stewards down there felt they needed some extra people there to keep an eye on things. When I arrived at the tent, I was not prepared for it at all. The Overkill stage was a 'gabba' stage (IE: hardcore techno) and the sound was deafening. There was alot of people inside one tent and there were fears over crown capacity. Everyone in the tent seemed to be on some drug. The festival so far had been rife for 'laughing gas', where you would use the canisters, and all you would hear would be a whooshing noise. These canisters littered the floor. I had also been given a lesson on what some festival goer's look like on certain drugs- their behaviour etc. Most of the people in the overkill tent were on Ketamine and/or Cocaine. My main duties were to stand on a side entrance, by the stage and watch the crowd. This sounds like a pretty easy job, but with the amount of people coming and going through the entrance I was on, it was hard to see into the crowd in the middle. The noise was also a hindrance. On many occasions a festival goer would collapse in the crowd, I would then have to make some room around the casualty (which is easier said than done when everyone is as high as a kite!), and try and ask this person some questions, or try and wake them up. I couldn't even hear my own voice, let-alone that of the casualty. This went on for 5 hours, till at last, at 6am, the rave finished. Nothing major had happened throughout the rave, but I felt as though someone had picked me up and shaken me for ages.

After the rave was over, my duty then was just to stand guard over the empty stage, and not to let any festival goer's in there. This was a welcome reprise from the five hours of ear-blasting music I had just heard!
This is the rubbish that is left after a rave. A short while after this was taken, the 'litter pickers' came along and picked up every scrap of rubbish, ready for the artist to come and do another set in 6 hours time.
Here is the site just before the sun came up on Saturday morning. There were still some festival goer's milling around from the night, before trying to get back and find their tents!


This photo is meant to show you how reflective the jackets are.. . .but I thought I decide to go and dance up on the Overkill stage when no-one was watching!


This shift was far harder than the shift previously. I would say it was probably down to the capacity of people and the uncertainty of what could happen, and also the noise. I was used to being at the bar with a comfortable noise level- but right next to a hard-core techno stage was another matter entirely. (I had a head-ache for the next day.)
I was secretly hoping that Oxfam would not put me on the Overkill for my next shift.



3rd Shift

This was my last shift of the Glade festival on Sunday 8am till 4pm, and I was back at the Wenches Chest. There had been heavy rain over night and the ground was wet through. There were alot of people slipping in the mud that day!
The bar didn't open till midday, so I was told to just sit by the bar and tell the festival goer's when the bar opened and any other problems/queries they had. My shift partner had been deployed onto another site so I was on my own. I wasn't too bad. I spoke to some of the security guards about how the festival had been for them. They said the amount of drugs they had confiscated over the weekend was a huge amount, and yet still festival goer's were intoxicated with something. They said you can never stop all of the drugs coming into the festival.
Once the bar was opened, there wasn't much trouble from anybody.
One guy shouted at me for no apparent reason, apparently I had 'woken him up from paradise, and why couldn't I just leave him the f*#k alone'. . ! He had been asleep for 3 hours and I just checked he was still alive! Needless to say he stumbled off in search of another bar where the stewards would leave him alone!

I've learned that most of the people that attend festivals go there to have a good time, and see the stewards as being there to help them. Stewards do generally get respect at festivals. There are of course some who see us being annoying and a hindrance to their 'fun'. This was just one of those stories. I was also to learn that you will come across at least one at every festival.

With all my shifts done at the Glade, I was tired. The shifts put your body clock completely out of sync. Unfortunately I didn't have much time to recover, and in the next couple of days I would be travelling to another festival, WOMAD, to do it all over again!

In conclusion: My thoughts on the first festival are slightly mixed. Although I had a really good time and felt I did my job the best I could, I was confused at how some of the problems I had were delt. When I didn't have a radio I wondered how I was to contact someone in the case of an emergency, and why I wasn't given a replacement. Also with the amount of drugs I saw on site, I wondered why the security and police were doing nothing about it when it was happening right in front of them. I also was quite annoyed when I found out that some of the stewards didn't bother to turn up to their shifts and carried on sleeping or partying. I concluded that if I felt I had done all I had for this festival, then that was all I should expect.

Here is just two quick, shorts videos, one of the Glade site in the daytime, and one at 1am/2am in the morning.

Keep smiling Ruby Foxglove x x x